First Things First
by Gabi-hime
Summary: What comes first? First comes love, then comes marriage - but that makes it all sound very easy, when it often isn't. Currently serving: Another Man's Treasure: Sofia's secret picnic with Cedric is a splendid success. Amber simply doesn't enjoy it because she wasn't invited and spends the entire time hiding in a bush.
1. Confessions 1 of 3

**Sofia the First**

_**Sofia x Cedric**_

_By Gabihime at gmail dot com_

_Confessions of a Teenaged Princess 1/3_

* * *

(Formerly Strange Bedfellows)

**Summary:** Confessions of a Teenaged Princess is a story in three parts, this being the first. Sofia attempts to confess her feelings to Cedric with very mixed results. Fortunately, she's not known for giving up easily, even if she has to resort to breaking and entering.

First Things First is a collection of the Cedfia Sofia the First stories all in the same timeline that are all related to one another. I thought putting them all together for easy perusal would be the best thing for everyone. You can see how many parts a story is by checking the chapter title. This also lets you check and see if a story is finished. I'll probably be writing the individual stories all out of order, but I will try and arrange them chronologically in chapter listings. Please do enjoy.

* * *

Their first kiss lasted twelve seconds.

This is rather long for a first kiss, because twelve seconds is actually quite a considerable amount of time if one counts it out. The length of the kiss alone might have suggested a positive reception, especially considering the fingertips that brushed inadvertently at the warm silk near the base of a certain princess's spine.

However -

They were in the tower workshop, which she had invaded, as had become quite customary. Sofia clearly hadn't had any particular agenda when she had come knocking. These days it was not always perils and troubles that sent her to the sorcerer's tower, looking for a helping hand, a willing listener, or a serviceable wand arm. In fact, the girl had become so comfortable in the tower that she had left off knocking at all for a while, and had simply let herself in unannounced on more than one occasion. After she had surprised him while he was either dressing or undressing three separate times he had _demanded _that princess or not, she had the decency to _knock _before barging into his rooms.

Now she always knocked, although really, it was just a formality. He always let her in.

It wasn't as if he were (obviously) overjoyed to see her whenever he opened the door to her familiar knock. Sometimes he met her with a half-lidded stare and a voluminous shrug, or he waved her in distractedly, his attention focused on something else. Other times he was impatient as he nearly yanked her inside, his excitement burning up as he animately explained a spell he had just completed, or some other unusual thing he had recently discovered. He often found himself starved for conversation when she appeared, as his only other companion was Wormwood, and while the bird was a good listener, he was not particularly talkative.

Generally, Cedric found talking with the denizens of Enchancia castle to be tedious and a dreadful waste of his valuable time. It was the absolute opposite of pleasurable. As royal sorcerer he was required to attend the king, and so he did, but _attending _the king did not mean he had to _enjoy spending time_ with the king. He had far more important things to do with himself. Things had gotten better on that score over the years, as a helpful sprite had worked her unfathomable magic of goodwill, but it wasn't as if he ever _looked forward_ to a day with Roland II, or the 'responsibility' of entertaining Prince James or Princess Amber.

Of course, in the beginning, he had similarly dreaded talking with Sofia. She was so bright and cheerful, with a basket full of charity, a heart bursting with kindness and goodwill, and a voice like a little songbird: and therefore, she was the most excruciating trial of his life. At school he would have never imagined that any single person might ever surpass Greylock the Galling in terms of sheer annoyance, but Sofia was far more determined, far more intelligent, and far more underfoot than Greylock had ever been.

And she didn't take hints well at all. No matter how unwelcome he made her feel in those early days, she had always been there to tug at his sleeve when she got herself into trouble (or, embarrassingly, when she got him _out _of trouble. It did not do much for one's dignity to be continually rescued by a nine year old.)

But then, that was the reason she was welcome in the tower now. She was intelligent enough to be worth talking to, she was determined enough to have not given up trying to befriend him, and she had been under his feet for so many years that he was simply accustomed to her. For years he had pushed her away only to find her immediately right back in the spot from which she had been so recently removed. She was like a cat who always finds its way into a forbidden space, no matter the obstacles or consequences. If she found a closed door, she opened it, even without permission. She was always there to help him before he even thought of asking. She smiled and it had a genuine warmth to it. When she laughed he did not find it grating, most particularly because she never laughed_ at him_. She always had interesting things to say, and beyond that she was always willing to listen to what _he _had to say, to give him her honest opinions, to encourage him when he had a difficult time with things, and to congratulate him when he succeeded.

And she brought him sandwiches.

It wasn't always sandwiches. Sometimes it was a bowl of wiggly pudding, or some slices of apple pie. Sometimes it was a book from the library. Occasionally it was her homework, but she never came empty-handed.

And once she came through the door of the workshop, she was sure to stay for hours, as if she had come through a magic gate into her own private kingdom. Sometimes she stayed so long that she fell asleep in the chair, or on the rug. It was as if she really could think of nothing better to do with her time than to spend it with him. More than once in the early hours of the morning he had looked up from a book and realized with a start that she was still sound asleep on the rug with his robe thrown over her. In those cases he had to fetch the royal guard at once to remove her to her own rooms. He did not dare touch her himself, although he commonly touched her in other situations, and had touched her for years, she was such a regular fixture of his life. He had pulled her out of harm's way half a hundred times, and she really always seemed to be hanging on his arm for some reason or another.

But realizing she was asleep on the floor at two in the morning always caused him to break out into a cold sweat, although he was not altogether sure why. Surely it was not because he was _afraid _of the sleeping Sofia, whose rosy bare feet sometimes peeked out from under the bottom of her skirts when she was curled up on the rug.

That was absurd.

It was really so absurd that he had stopped moving away from her so quickly when she inevitably stepped close to him in the sometimes cramped confines of the tower. There was no reason to retreat from her. It wasn't as if she was an advancing army. She was just one girl with slender arms and round shoulders and hands like small, live birds. Her warmth moved with her, and sometimes when her hand was on his arm he had a curious desire for her to leave it there.

She was comforting and comfortable, and he honestly enjoyed spending time with her.

And somehow she was also incredibly alarming. He could not say why or how. It was an instinctual fear response that made him want to press himself so hard against the wall that he sank into it, retreating into the old stone. There was something about her that he did not quite have the shape of, and it was terrifying.

And yet he knew It was ridiculous to be afraid of a sixteen year old princess who carried on long conversations with her pet rabbit, although he was well aware of exactly how formidable that princess could be as an adversary. In her years as Second Princess of Enchancia she had saved the kingdom dozens of times and defeated scads of ne'er-do-wells (some of them repeatedly). He considered it generally fortunate on all counts that Sofia had made an ally of him despite his best efforts to dissuade her. While she had the Amulet of Avalor he could be certain of where it was and how it was being used. She really was the perfect safe-deposit box.

He hadn't given up on acquiring the amulet _entirely_, but years of disappointments on that score had made him somewhat less keen to acquire it. Barring divine intervention, the amulet seemed destined to stay on a certain slender royal neck, unless she up and decided to give it to him one day.

\- which was always _possible_, if unlikely. She was extremely generous, but she wasn't stupid.

While a stupid princess would have likely been easier to deal with, at this point Cedric was strangely glad it had been the troublesome redhead who had become Enchancia's unexpected Second Princess. Although a never-ending source of trouble in his life, she had also become a bewildering source of satisfaction and happiness.

After all, he had no illusions that his family's wand, which was carefully laid away in a painstakingly decorated handmade wandbox until he had need of it, would have ever come into his hands without the direct intervention of the buttercup princess. He simply could not reason with his father, but Sofia seemed to have this miraculous power. She had saved his job and his life countless times, and whenever he wondered why, she was always quick to answer, "Well, of course, Mr. Cedric. We're friends. That's just something that friends do."

Of course, he had very little experience with friends, so it was difficult for him to disagree with her assessment, being that it was not his area of expertise, but as far as he could tell most people who referred to themselves as friends had not shared quite so many harrowing experiences with one another. He did not really doubt that she was his friend, and by virtue of the fact that he really had no others she was certainly his best friend, but he was not always sure that this was all there was to it. She spent more time with him than with anyone else. Anybody who did a simple accounting of time could figure that much out. Surely a girl like Sofia had dozens and dozens of friends, plenty of people both excited and willing to devote their afternoons and evenings to her.

And yet it was always to the workshop that she came, with a plate of sandwiches, a stack of books, or sometimes a new pair of socks.

And he was glad to let her in.

This particular evening she was sitting on a stool, her chin propped on her hands, as she watched him at his work table, fussing with beakers and distillation equipment. He was fiddling with a potion he had recently discovered in a dusty alchemy book in the palace library. The name of the formula was _Abscondit Corculilum_, and it was giving him no end of trouble.

"If I have understood the notes correctly, it is a concoction to make invisible things visible," Cedric explained to Sofia, who was listening intently. "Which is very convenient if think about it. It's very annoying to have someone sneaking about when you can't see them, and just imagine if you accidentally misplace something important with an invisibility spell. This will reveal it!"

"That does sound awfully useful," Sofia agreed.

Cedric held the vial of teal liquid above his head and let out a great moan, "But it doesn't seem to work no matter what I do," he lamented. "I don't know if I've mixed it wrong or what. The instructions are a bit strange. But watch this, " he said, and pointed at an apparently blank spot on the table, "There's an apple up there that I've already turned invisible with a spell." He carefully let half a dozen drops of the concoction fall on the invisible apple. Sofia saw them strike it, and run down the sides ineffectually, as the potion was visible, even if the apple was not. The potion had not really had its intended effect, she thought. "See?" he grumbled. "Absolutely nothing but a mess."

At this, Sofia got up from her chair and moved around to the alchemy book that lay open on the table.

"Well, let's look at it together," she suggested. "Maybe we can figure out what went wrong."

That wasn't a terrible idea. Sofia was uncommonly clever with both potions and spells, and she often had something helpful to had. Beyond that, she was difficult to discourage. Around the time he was ready to give up, she was just getting started, and obligingly grabbed his hand and pulled him along behind her.

She was already bent over the alchemy book, letting one finger slowly run across the page as she thought about things. He came up behind her and leaned over the book himself.

"This word," she said after a minute, letting her finger rest over a particularly abstruse word in the description of the spell. "What does it mean, exactly?"

Cedric leaned forward to look at it closely and then shrugged. "It means invisible," he answered shortly.

Sofia bit her lip and tilted her head to the side. "Is that all it means?" she asked. "I feel like it's not. Maybe the reason the potion isn't working isn't because you made a mistake and mixed it wrong, but because we don't really understand what it does."

Cedric eyed her dubiously, "I'm not certain of that, Princess. The potion's effect seems straightforward. It makes invisible things visible. There isn't much room for nuance in that."

"Well," said Sofia, shrugging her own shoulders, "Maybe there is. We won't know until we look."

She left him at the table and moved to the shelf where she found a huge dictionary of arcane terms. She staggered a little as she dragged it off the shelf and Cedric had to scramble to assist her before she and the book ended up on the ground. They got the book over to the work table with a little difficulty and soon Sofia was rapidly flipping through the closely written pages.

"Oh look, here it is!" she cried in triumph, letting her finger come to rest on the page. "It says 'something hidden, something ever-present, but kept from view.' That doesn't really sound like something invisible. Maybe like something obscured, but not really invisible. You know when you're underneath some kinds of light, your shadow disappears? It's not really invisible, even though you can't see it. Maybe it's something like that."

Cedric, who had crowded behind her at the book to read the definition of the word that she'd found, was suddenly struck by her idea.

"You know, Princess Sofia, I think you may be right," he said with building excitement. "I hadn't really considered it, but it's possible that this potion does something far more interesting than just reveal run-of-the-mill invisible things. There are other potions for that, after all."

He was leaning over the book again, bracing himself against the table. Sofia was at his elbow, as she ever was, and so quite accidentally one of his arms found its way around her shoulders. He felt her warmth as she moved against him, leaning forward herself, trying to puzzle out the meaning of the words on the page.

"This part," she said with enthusiasm, having put her hands on another mystery, "I think this part might mean 'sense.'"

"Perhaps it's a potion to reveal hidden senses!" Cedric cried in triumph, giving her shoulders a squeeze.

"It could be!" Sofia agreed, turning slightly to tug on the front of his robe. "If it is, then that sounds really amazing. Maybe we'll be able to taste colors, or see music. That would be incredible."

"It would be," Cedric agreed, smiling wistfully, "Thank you, princess." Her enthusiasm was infectious, and he had caught it.

And that's when the twelve seconds began.

The girl already had ahold of the front of his robe, and so she had simply pulled on him gently and risen on her toes -

And she had kissed him.

The brush of her lips was as soft as the silk-velvet feeling of orchid petals against his fingertips, but then it was not so much like holding a flower, but like feeling a crystal decanter shatter into thousands of fragments on the stone floor, _because she had the advantage of him_. She had caught him with his mouth open slightly and had pressed her luck. Her tongue was warm and curious, gentle but insistent, and the moment it had slipped into his mouth to brush against his own tongue he had lost track of absolutely everything else.

This is how fourteen seconds passed in an exquisitely confused kiss. It was not a magnificently perfect kiss, not the sort that happened right before the curtain fell, to the rise of exultant music. It was a little silly and a little messy, but very involved and deliberate, particularly on the part of the Second Princess.

Cedric, at last finding his feet after extreme euphoria, was beginning to feel very good about absolutely everything in the world, one of his hands coming to settle against the small of her back as she smiled up at him, her face flushed and rosy.

But then there was raucous cawing from a corner of the workshop as Wormwood beat against the bars of his cage and in one moment of pure, horrified realization, did Cedric understand what he had done.

He shrieked like he had see a spider the size of a cat crawling up the wall and shoved Sofia as far away from him as he could, backpedaling rapidly.

"I kissed you!" he yelped in horror.

Sofia shook her head as she took a hesitant step toward him again.

"Actually," she said, "I kissed you."

"Do you think that's going to matter to anyone who finds out about this?" Cedric asked, his hysteria building as he again retreated from her advance, knocking over a stack of spellbooks as he did. "I'm the court sorcerer. I can't go around kissing teenaged princesses! King Roland will have me thrown in the deepest well he can find!"

"You didn't like it?" Sofia asked anxiously, biting her lip even as she continued to slowly advance.

"I don't like being banished from the kingdom!" Cedric asserted with a howl of distress. "And I've worked _so _hard for _so _long. I'm going to be thrown out, and then I'll be the laughing stock of the magic academy: a court sorcerer with no court." Suddenly his hands flew to his throat. "What if the king isn't lenient? What if he decides to behead me?! Oh Cedric," he moaned, "You died so young, so full of promise."

"Mr. Cedric, no one's going to behead you," Sofia insisted, "I don't think anybody's ever been beheaded in the history of Enchancia, and you haven't even done anything. I told you," she said, "_I_ kissed _you_. I didn't just kiss you just because I felt like it, although I did feel like it. I kissed you for a reason. It just seemed like the right time. I've been waiting to do it for a while, because there's something I want to tell you."

Cedric let out another yelp of distress as Sofia again approached him and he scuttled up on the worktable, this time knocking a bottle of violently green fluid on the floor as he attempted to put distance between himself and the slowly advancing princess.

"Don't say it, don't say it, don't say it," insisted Cedric, his voice shrill. "Whatever it is you're going to say, don't say it. I don't want to know. I'm more than twenty years older than you are, princess, _please be reasonable_."

"That doesn't matter to me, Mr. Cedric," Sofia said resolutely. "After all, 'Age is just a number,' right? That's what I think, anyway."

"Age may just be a number, Princess Sofia," Cedric began in panicked despair, "But in my case it is _a very large number_, much larger than _your _number, do you understand me? This is a thing that _concerns _people, particularly parents. Most particularly royal parents. No one's going to believe that you kissed me, and it doesn't matter anyway. I'll still be excommunicated from the country, the place where my family has lived and served for generations. In the best case scenario I'll be disgraced. In the worst, I'll be burned at the stake for being a philandering cad of a sorcerer who sullied your virtue."

He was on the edge of a loud, prolonged crying jag.

Meanwhile, the green liquid had turned out to be extremely corrosive and was rapidly eating a sizeable hole in the stone floor. While Cedric curled up on the work table sobbing, Sofia rapidly sorted through the other potions on the desk until she found one to neutralize the acid in the smoking hole.

"Mr. Cedric," she said nervously, wringing her hands even as she knelt to pour chemicals into the fizzing void, "I understand that you're upset, and I didn't mean to make you cry. I just want to tell you that I - "

And this at last spurred Cedric to action as if someone had set his robe on fire. He leaped off the work table and grabbed Sofia by the shoulders, causing her to drop the beakers she had been holding into the yawning hole, where they shattered as they struck stone.

"That's it!" he declared, "Get out! _Get out get out get out!"_

And with no further ceremony or explanation, he shoved her right out the door and locked and barred it behind her, before sliding down it weakly and collapsing into a boneless lump against against the floor, where he lay prone and terrified.


	2. Confessions 2 of 3

**Sofia the First**

_**Cedric x Sofia**_

**By Gabihime at gmail dot com**

_Confessions of a Teenaged Princess 2/3_

* * *

**Summary**: This is a story in three parts, this being the second part. Sofia attempts to confess her feelings to Cedric with very mixed results. Fortunately, she's not known for giving up easily, even if she has to resort to breaking and entering.

* * *

Even her very best, most sincere pleading had not induced Cedric to open the door. This was something of an accomplishment on his part, as he was usually not very successful at denying her much of anything, and her pleading had softened hearts quite a bit stonier than his. But she had put fear into him - although this certainly had not been her intention - and now he was absolutely unwilling to have her near him.

Eventually she gave up trying to get him to open the hallway door and just went around the long way to the door in the castle gardens. Unfortunately, Cedric was relatively experienced with Sofia's modus operandi, and as soon as he had recovered enough to stand on his own feet he had rushed down the stairs to lock and bar the garden door as well.

This left his tower virtually inaccessible.

Sofia realized that she was going to have to order a tactical retreat, and she did, retiring to an isolated corner of the garden. She met Clover there, who left off digging up radishes when he saw out upset she was. She sat down in a grassy patch of flowers and leaned up against the wall, pensive. Things had not gone the way she had hoped they would.

Sofia looked a little worse for wear, as she had recently worked up all her courage for a potent first kiss, neutralized a major acidic spill while trying to talk about her feelings, and been shoved out a door for her trouble.

"What's up, Sof?" the rabbit asked, coming to sit in the flower patch with her. "It looks like you just found out that they cancelled dessert for the rest of the year."

"Worse than that," Sofia said with a sigh, blowing air out of the side of her mouth at the disheveled bangs that hung in her face. Her tiara was on crooked. Cedric had knocked it all funny when he had shoved her away from him like she was the carrier of a virulent disease. She had not yet had the heart to fix it. "I kissed Mr. Cedric," she explained, troubled.

"He was already a frog," Clover joked. "Did he turn into a prince?" the rabbit wanted to know, kicking back in the grass for some quality time with his princess.

"No," Sofia said honestly. "He screamed."

"He screamed?!" Clover wondered aloud, his brows drawing together. Then all at once he got a look on his face like he'd just been caught in carriage lights. "Oh Sof, you don't mean you _actually _kissed him, do you? Like _kissed him_, kissed him? Like waking someone up who's pricked their finger on a spinning wheel kissed him? We're talking about poison apple recovery type kissing?"

Sofia nodded weakly, "Yep," she admitted. "That would be exactly the kind of kissing I'm talking about."

"I bet you didn't break the curse of his terrible personality," Clover quipped, then he paused and thought about it. "Let me get this straight," he said. "You, Sofia, best princess in the entire world, kissed Cedric the Suspect _and_ _he's the one who_ _screamed_?" Clover asked dubiously. "Was it maybe a happy scream? You know, like a scream of delight? Like 'ARGH! This is the best day of my life!'"

Sofia winced and shook her head. "I don't think it was a scream of delight. I think it was a regular, normal, awful scream. Like how you'd scream if you saw Amber coming to dress you up for a fashion show."

"That's definitely a scream of terror," Clover agreed.

Sofia nodded. "And after he screamed, he got really upset," she looked at Clover sidelong, "I mean _really_ upset. I didn't have time to say much of anything to him." She fidgeted guiltily. "He seems to think that he's going to be thrown out of the kingdom because of me."

"Well," Clover noted practically, "I bet if you complained to your royal dad you could get him thrown out, and I mean _chop chop._ You're basically the whole Cedric cheering section in this kingdom, and he's almost been fired, what, _seven hundred times?_"

This made Sofia turn slightly ashen. "I don't want to get him fired!" she insisted.

"Even after he screamed when you kissed him?" Clover demanded sardonically. "You sure are forgiving. If someone screamed after Amber kissed them, I'm pretty sure that girl would declare war - not just figurative war, but like _real, actual _war with cannons and stuff."

"I just wanted to tell him how I really felt," Sofia said sadly, wrapping her arms around her knees. "He's under no obligation to _like _what I tell him. I love him, but I don't want to _make _him like me, although I really wish he did," she smiled wistfully, then ducked her head down into her knees. "I always thought it was best to tell other people how you felt about them, but now I don't know. It seems like I've messed absolutely everything up. He won't talk to me at all. I'm not sure what to do. It was really, really hard working up the courage to do that in the first place, and all it did was make a big mess of everything. Maybe I did something wrong," she worried, "Maybe I did something he didn't like. It's the first time I'd ever done something like that." Her cheeks were flushed and she felt very hot and confused.

"You obviously did something he didn't like, otherwise he wouldn't have screamed," Clover pointed out, and Sofia's lower lip pushed out threateningly in response. Clover waved her off with his paws. "I'm just going to throw this out there, Sofia, but I don't think your boyfriend would have the first clue about whether you're up to the gold standard in kissing or not. I don't think the guy has all that much experience with girls," he shrugged expressively. "Remember when he got all goopy and weird over Sasha the Sorceress, who was just Miss Nettle in disguise?" The rabbit made a number of expressive and colorful hand motions to illustrate this part of the story. "The first time, okay, but _the second time,_ you remember, when she came back as 'Eileen the Enchantress' and was just wearing different lipstick_?_ It's like that guy's got the memory of a tomato - one that's already squishy and starting to go bad." Clover threw his paws up. "You know what that says to me, Sof? It says that that dope is practically wearing a medal around his neck embossed with the words 'the only girl who ever kisses me is my mother.' I'll be honest with you. I think I have more experience with ladies than he does, and I'm a bunny rabbit."

Sofia sighed again and curled up into a smaller ball. She felt terrible about everything. She had begun to feel sick to her stomach.

Clover could sense her distress, but couldn't think of any way to comfort her, so instead he kicked at the grass.

"Why'd you have to fall in love with that idiot anyway?" Clover complained to a clump of daffodils. "Why couldn't you have fallen in love with a different idiot, like Prince Desmond, or Prince Hugo, or I dunno, even Baileywick would be better than Mr. Wishes-He-Was-Sinister. Baileywick's not even an idiot, so that's in his favor, and he knows just how you like your pancakes. There's still time," Clover said, slapping one paw into the other for emphasis, "Forget Mr. Gloomydoom and hurry up and fall in love with Baileywick. We'll send him a box of chocolates. He's like, fifty times nicer than the sorcerer, even if he _is _old enough to be your grandpa."

"It doesn't work that way," she grumped, dangerously close to pouting. "I didn't just go down a list checking off boxes to find my perfect match," Sofia answered indignantly, huffing into her knees. "I love Mr. Cedric because I love Mr. Cedric. It's _always _been Mr. Cedric. You know that. I can't just turn it off and on. My heart doesn't have a lightswitch."

Clover sighed dramatically. "I know," he said, hopping over to rub her arm comfortingly. "I dunno what to tell you, kiddo," he said with the sort of shrug that only a bunny can make. "I guess we'll just have to see how things turn out."

* * *

If Sofia hoped that sleeping on her troubles would ease them, then she was disappointed. A good night's sleep did nothing to sweeten Cedric's temper nor convince him that her offer (whatever it might have been) was worth listening to. The world was still very much all out of sorts. When she went to his tower the next morning after breakfast but before school, she found the doors still shut up tightly. When she asked a guard about it, she discovered that Cedric had called in sick for the day.

"He says he's got a really contagious strain of the flu," said Rudolpho, the guard most commonly stationed near the tower. "Best keep your distance for a while, miss."

Sofia was very preoccupied during the whole of the school day. Her worries were mixed up and confused. Part of her was worried about the fact that he had withdrawn from the castle, and was avoiding everyone, likely because of the previous day's kiss. The other part of her worried that he was actually ill, and that he had no one to look after him since he had barred and locked the door. Her distraction caused her to turn an anvil into a teakettle instead of a pocket watch in magic class, to step on Desmond's feet repeatedly in dance class, and to completely miss a wing blast during riding practice, knocking a riding dummy into a tree.

Such poor performance was very unusual for Sofia and her teachers noticed her wavering attention. Mistress Flora even worried that Sofia might have a low-grade fever, and prescribed a lot of bedrest for the princess when she got home.

After school the door to Cedric's rooms was barred just as it had been in the morning, and Rudolpho could give her no updates, other than the assurance that Cedric had accepted a tray of food from Violet in the middle of the day. Otherwise he had not left the tower.

The next morning, Cedric claimed to have Cholera, and the day after that, Diphtheria. If things continued, soon he would have either polio or the measles.

He still refused to speak much when she knocked at the door, even when she tried to persuade him to come out of the tower for his own health, promising to leave him be.

"After all, Mr. Cedric, you can't just stay in there forever," Sofia pleaded. "You've got to come out some time."

"Cedric isn't here," he'd said in response. "I'm afraid he has just died. I'll send his family your condolences. Don't send flowers and please_ do not _call again."

Sofia sighed, and biting her lip, reluctantly left the hall.

* * *

Feeling very low, Sofia at last settled down on a pile of straw out behind the royal stables. Nothing she had tried had worked, and now she worried that he really would make himself ill avoiding her. She _had _messed everything up, and now he wasn't even willing to be her friend, and on top of all that she hadn't even gotten to say what she really felt. Everything was awful, and she felt like having a long cry about it. She sniffled, rubbing her nose against her sleeve and looked at the dirt on her hands. Then she outright groaned and proceeded to roll over and over in the straw several times, trying to work the absolute despair out of her body.

She was just about begin crying in earnest when she felt a warmth at her breastbone and looked down in surprise to realize that the Amulet of Avalor was filled with radiance.

A princess?

Well, that followed.

Sofia couldn't see any way out of what had happened without either a princess or a miracle.

She sat up and tried her best to look dignified and ready to receive a royal princess.

There was a lot of straw sticking weirdly out of her hair and her tiara. Well, there was nothing to do about that. The princess who came would see her as she was: grimy, sobbing, and covered with little bits of chaff.

As the summoning spell glimmered away, a princess was left standing on the mucky ground behind the stable.

This princess immediately put her hands on her hips and asked, "Now my wee lassie, why are you crying?"

Sofia sniffled as she looked up. "Meridah," she managed, before having to rub her nose again on her sleeve.

"Aye it is," said the girl whose maple red hair was wild even in the light breeze. She took in the state of Sofia and tilted her head slightly to the side, looking sympathetic. "You look like you've had a hard time of it," she said.

Sofia bit her lip then ducked her head. "I did something I shouldn't have," she admitted, her cheeks flushing. "Or, I don't know. It seemed right at the time, but now everything's awful and messed up and I don't know what to do." She took a deep breath but despite how she tried to calm herself, it still came out as a half sob.

"It's all right, wee bairn," comforted Meridah, coming to sit beside Sofia on the musty straw. "A little at a time will do well enough. We'll get to the bottom of it."

"I did something," she began again, and then trembled for several seconds before she could continue. "I did something and I didn't get a chance to explain what it meant, or even apologize about it, and now I can't talk to the person I want to explain it to, and I don't know if I even should, because what if explaining things makes everything worse - " she had gotten herself going on a tear, her voice rising in volume and pitch until Meridah patted her head soothingly.

"Hushabye my darling," she said gently, and Sofia quieted a little. Meridah thought about things. "Now when you say you can't talk to this person you want to explain things to, have they gone beyond where you can reach them?" she asked softly.

"What do you mean?" asked Sofia.

"Have they died, my love?" Meridah's voice was very quiet as she asked this delicate question, ready to console the mud-streaked princess if necessary. Fortunately, Sofia let out a sigh of relief as she shook her head.

"Oh no," she said, "He's just shut the door and locked it."

Meridah let out a sigh of her own and then slapped Sofia on the shoulder. "Well then, that's easy," she declared.

"How is that easy?" Sofia asked in consternation, her mouth puckering up in distress.

"There are lots of ways to get through a door," Meridah confided, "Even a locked door. Does it have a key you can get?" she asked.

Sofia shook her head. "No, I think Mr. Cedric has the only one to the tower. Not even housekeeping has one," she flushed a little and looked down when Meridah raised an eyebrow. "I've had similar problems in the past," she admitted.

"Which is why there's no easy way in now," Meridah said with a nod, and then shrugged philosophically. "Well, that's no great loss. A key is the neatest way through a door, but it's not the only way in. Can you blow it open?" she wondered.

"Maybe?" Sofia asked in amazement, having astonished herself with this answer. "I mean, probably, with magic, but I'd really like to _not_ blow up the door, if possible. That'd be even more explaining to do," she said, attempting to reason with the summoned princess, who was obviously very interested in the possibility of pyrotechnics.

Meridah looked decidedly disappointed at this veto, as if she had pinned her hopes on Sofia being interested in castle demolition.

"Well, surely there's got to be another way into those rooms," she said. "It's got a door. Does the place nae have windows?"

"Well," Sofia said slowly, "There is a window way up the tower - "

"That's it then," Meridah said, slapping her fist into her palm. "Just climb up and go through the window."

"The window's in a tower," Sofia reminded the enthusiastic princess, "It's about five stories up, I think. I'm pretty athletic, but I can't scale a bare rock wall."

"You should try it some time," suggested Meridah, giving her another slap on the arm. "It'll curl your hair. There's nothing quite like it. Gives you a real thrill, and the taste of raw freedom on your tongue."

Sofia smiled weakly at the thought then bit her lip again. "You know," she said, "Even if I can't _climb_ in the window, I think there is a way for me to get in that way." She looked over at Meridah with troubled eyes. "But even if I can get in to talk to him, I don't know if I should. What if talking just makes things worse?"

"You want to explain things, don't you?" demanded Meridah. "You want to put things right between the two of you, don't you lassie? Talking things over can be hard. It can seem impossible, like there's no way to get the words out, or no reason to try," here Meridah paused to look at her own fingers, and Sofia could see the calloused forefinger, toughed from stringing a bow, and perhaps also from needlework. "But no matter how hard it is to talk things through, you've got to do it. Gather up all the threads of your guts, my girl. That's courage. There's no way another person can understand you if you don't work at it, and there's no way that you can understand that other person unless you listen to what they have to say. If you really talk to one another, if you really listen, then it'll never get worse. It'll only get better. Sometimes the way to get past a rough patch is just to go right through it. It may seem rocky. It may seem awful, and hard, and scary, much worse than the safe place you came from, but if you hold tight, you'll see yourself through. A princess needs a strong spirit and a brave heart," Meridah said, and the power seemed to come from deep in her chest, "But she also needs wisdom, faith, and compassion. If you remember all that when you're doing the talking, then everything'll turn out all right."

She got to her feet, but a little of the old straw stuck to her dress.

"But if I may make a suggestion," she said with a chortle, "Ye might want to wash your face before you go."

And as Sofia's hands darted up to her face, to pat at the dirt on her cheeks, Meridah was gone in a twinkling of magic.


	3. Confessions 3 of 3

**Sofia the First**

_**Sofia x Cedric**_

_By Gabihime at gmail dot com_

_Confessions of a Teenaged Princess 3/3_

* * *

Confessions of a Teenaged Princess is a story in three parts, this being the final part. Sofia attempts to confess her feelings to Cedric with very mixed results. Fortunately, she's not known for giving up easily.

* * *

"I feel good about this," Sofia said, giving herself a light slap on her cheeks to steel her nerve. "I feel good about _things_. I can do this."

"I'm glad you feel good about this," Minimus said nervously, "Because I don't. Are you sure you want to do this? Because this seems _really _dangerous," he pleaded, shifting his back hooves uneasily.

"What, you mean jump off your back five stories up and hope I make it through an average-sized window?" Sofia asked with an oddly high laugh, "Oh no, I'm sure it's completely safe. I've done stuff lots more dangerous than this in derby races," she attempted to assure him, and to convince herself in the process. She swallowed hard. "Anyway, you're not going to talk me out of it, Minimus. If he won't open the door, then I've got to find another way in. I'm not giving up. The only other option is blowing the door open, and I really, _really _want to avoid having to do that," she said.

"Well, I still think it's crazy," said Minimus, snorting and shaking his head.

"It is," Sofia agreed, patting him on the neck, "But crazy's the only thing I've got right now. We've got to hope that crazy works."

"All right Sofia," Minimus reluctantly agreed, "If you know what you're doing."

"I do," she insisted, then smiled as she tightened the buckle to her hardhat, "I mean, as much as I ever know what I'm doing," she said with a laugh. Then she dug in with her knees and took a deep breath before letting it out.

"Okay," she said, her game face ready, "Let's do this."

Given her somewhat lackluster performance during the early part of the week, it had not been difficult for Sofia to convince Sir Gillium to let her take Minimus home with her for the weekend, for some extra practice. She was grateful for this, since her plan to infiltrate Cedric's tower hinged on the horse's cooperation. It wasn't even a fib, really, since she assured Minimus that they would practice dutifully once she got her issues with the sorcerer sorted.

The small Pegasus hadn't been overjoyed when he heard in detail what she intended to do, but he also knew that he wouldn't be able to dissuade her. She was committed and determined. When once faced a committed and determined Sofia, the only thing to do was to go along with her plan and hope it turned out well, or get out of her way.

And so Sofia told the guards stationed around the palace grounds that she intended to spend a couple of hours practicing some new maneuvers with Minimus, and that they oughtn't worry if they saw her flying erratically. She'd call if she needed them. She'd reconnoitered the tower a little earlier in the afternoon and had discovered that, as usual, the upper window was open, although all of the lower windows were shuttered. If Cedric expected an invasion, he certainly did not reckon on one from the air.

Everything had lined up as she hoped it would. Now there was only one last wish on a daylight star for luck and then to trust in her own skill.

Minimus was up in the air at her urging, and then they did one quick pass by the tower, to gauge distance. Sofia wouldn't allow more than one pass, lest Cedric notice there was a princess buzzing around his tower and lock the window up tight. The second pass came, and Minimus cut the distance between himself and the tower very close, doing a half roll as he passed near the window.

"Now, Sofia!" he yelled, and she jumped.

There was one, long moment of silence as Sofia hung in the air, and she could feel the blood beating in her ears, but then she was tumbling through the window, knocking over a houseplant in a terracotta pot as she spilled over an end table. She wrapped her body around it instinctively, so it wouldn't shatter, and as she came to a confused stop she realized she was sitting on the back of a wing chair that she had tipped over during her unorthodox entrance. Outside the window she could see Minimus wheeling to come by for a third pass, to make sure she was all right, and so she stuck her head out and called, "All clear! Go have Clover get you some carrots. I'll be down to rub you off later!"

Then she set about replacing the potted plant she had knocked over and righting the chair. Of course, she'd made no small amount of noise when she'd come crashing into Cedric's bedroom as Hurricane Sofia, and the sorcerer was soon at the stairway door to see what on earth had caused all the commotion.

He found Sofia neatly rearranging his furniture. He stared at her blankly for a solid minute, and then he remembered to close his mouth.

"Princess Sofia?" he asked in astonishment, "How did you get in here?"

"Through the window," Sofia answered matter-of-factly, turning the plant so it got the best exposure. So far, things weren't going too badly. They were having a normal conversation, and he was not yet shrieking or in tears thanks to her presence.

"Through the window?" he asked in confusion, and then stared at the offending window hard, as if it might have something to add to the conversation. Then, as if to reassure himself that the window was in fact still five stories above the garden, he went and looked out it himself, took careful note of the distance to the ground, and then turned his attention back to Sofia. "And how exactly did you do that?" he demanded.

"I jumped," she said, folding her hands in front of her, "From the back of my flying horse, Minimus."

"What?" asked Cedric and it looked very much as if he needed to sit down. "You jumped through the window from the back of a flying horse?" he asked, brushing his fingertips against his forehead.

"Yes," Sofia answered again patiently, feeling under her chin to unfastened her hardhat.

As if the full import of what she had told him had at last sunken into his brain, Cedric put both of his hands on her shoulders and said, "But that's absolutely insane! You could have been killed!"

"I could have been," Sofia admitted mildly, "If I had missed. But I made it fine."

At her neck, the Amulet of Avalor caught the light most beautifully. Cedric's eyes were drawn to it briefly, but then his brows drew together again as he turned his attention back to the worrisome princess.

"Why in heaven would you do something like that?" Cedric asked, half angry, but still ashen at the thought of what might have happened if Sofia had not successfully made the jump.

Sofia closed her eyes briefly and relaxed because the feeling of his hands on her shoulders was steadying, even though his grip on her was slightly uncomfortable. It was as if he thought she might still go hurtling toward the ground if he let go of her. By holding onto her he could at least be certain of where she was at any given moment.

Taking solace in the weight of his hands, she gave him a brief smile and then took a deep breath and answered his question.

"I know it was dangerous, so there's no point in being angry with me," she began, shaking her head. "Of course, you have a right to be angry, but I'm telling you right now that it won't do any good. It might have been reckless, but it was for a reason. I did take a chance, but sometimes chances are the only way for things to happen," she said with a smile as she tilted her head to the side. Then she closed her eyes briefly. "I really, really wanted to see you," she admitted with sweetly childish honesty, but when she opened her eyes again she was all princess, the Sofia who ruled and commanded, the Sofia who was beloved, the Sofia who was adored. "It was _important _that I see you. I have something to tell you, and this time I'd really like for you to listen until I finish talking," she said and then the spell of her royal word was broken, and she shyly looked down. Now she was the ordinary, common Sofia, the one who chatted with rabbits and was always underfoot. "And I want you to listen to me for another reason too. I owe you an apology," she said.

"An apology?" he asked, and the word was strange in his mouth, just as she was surely strange in her skin, standing there in her riding habit with a little bit of mud on her boots. He was not certain what to do with this Sofia who had come crashing through his bedroom window like a migratory bird blown totally off her course. He still had his hands on her shoulders, although he was not really cognizant of this fact.

"When I kissed you," here the flush rose to her cheeks as she folded her hands over her heart, "I was only thinking about what _I _wanted, not what _you _wanted. It was selfish. No matter how much I wanted to kiss you, I should have thought about how it would make you feel. I wanted it to be a special moment, filled with warmth and happiness, but instead all I did was make you upset." She ducked her head again, and her voice rang with quiet sincerity. "I am sorry, Mr. Cedric."

If Sofia had been looking at him, she would have seen the mixture of emotions that played out across his face after her apology. His hands had tightened on her shoulders again at the mention of the impossible 'k' word, but had gradually relaxed as she had continued, until at last he was left confounded. "Well," he began awkwardly, "I - That is to say, I don't think - I mean, I didn't - "

His confused and halting answer was interrupted by a great deal of noise from the workshop level. Someone was pounding on the door with dire intent. It sounded as if they might actually break the door in if left unanswered.

Cedric let go of Sofia as if he had just been caught groping her by royal authorities and went down the stairs to the workshop two at a time as much to avoid looking at the princess as to answer the urgent summons. Sofia went scrambling after him, still desperate to complete her confession, and hanging onto the thread of softness in his voice she had heard when he had begun to answer her apology.

As if to fully realize Cedric's greatest fears, the party intent on breaking in the door was a castle guard. The sorcerer prepared himself to be hauled away to the dungeon and clapped in irons for daring to entertain thoughts of kissing a royal highness, but on the off chance the guard had arrived for some other reason than to incarcerate him for his untoward thoughts, Cedric put off opening the door and instead asked, "What is it?"

"Princess Sofia's horse just came back to the stable riderless, and we're afraid something has happened to her. A sound like a collision was reported from this area of the castle. We're wondering if you saw or heard anything," came the urgent voice of Rudolpho.

"Oh yes, I've got her," Cedric said, then he hastened to correct himself, "What I mean to say is, _she's in here_."

"And I'm perfectly fine," Sofia called out as she crowded up behind him, "My trick came off without a hitch. Sorry for worrying you all."

The relief on the other side of the door was audible. Now the castle guard did not have to mount a search for a possibly pancaked princess and then break the news to her royal father.

"But aren't you still deathly ill?" asked Rudolpho in confusion. "Isn't it dangerous for the princess to be in there with you?

It was horrifically dangerous, at least from the sorcerer's point of view, but the princess did not give him time to answer.

"Oh, it's all right," Sofia answered cheerily, "I've had all my vaccinations."

And that quite effectively got rid of the guard problem.

As the guard retreated, Sofia flopped against the door in relief, letting out a familiar sigh and giving Cedric a very genuine smile, which he found altogether charming as well as unspeakably terrifying. Everything about her practically sang out,_ That's another scrape we've got through_. Here was another strange, beautiful moment he had shared with the predictably unpredictable Sofia. He skittered away from her nervously. It was if he found himself perpetually on the edge of a yawning abyss, scrabbling to maintain his footing, as the dark unknown constantly consumed what little ground he had left.

Sofia saw him retreat and she pressed her teeth against her lower lip.

Now was the time, before things slipped away again.

"Mr. Cedric - " she began, moving toward the work table, where he had withdrawn.

But her advance excited the other party in the room, and he began cawing raucously, so Sofia had difficulty thinking.

"That's as far as you come, your highness," came the indignant croaking of Wormwood. "The royal sorcerer is uninterested in speaking with you further today. _Leave_."

"Wormwood," Sofia pleaded, "Please be still for a while. I'm willing to hear you out about this, but first I really need to talk to Mr. Cedric - "

"I have no desire to talk _anything _out with you, princess," the raven stormed loudly, "There is nothing up for discussion - "

"I understand that you've got strong feelings about all this - "

" - made for better things than this - "

"But I've got strong feelings too, and I really need to talk to him about them - "

" - have had your uses in the past, and therefore you've been tolerated, however - "

"I'm trying to be as nice about this as I possibly can, but if you won't be quiet enough for me to talk to him, then - "

" - and we've got absolutely no interest in a royal patron who doesn't know the meaning of personal space and who cannot keep her hands to herself - "

Without further warning, Sofia laid her hand on the wand that lay on the work table and pointed it directly at the raven.

"_Tacitata_!" she cried out with all the passion of a little valkyrie, and a flare of magic blew out of the wand rendering the offending bird very silent.

He was still attempting to make quite a bit of noise, but even his feathers had been silenced.

Sofia winced slightly.

"I am sorry," she apologized to the raven, bowing her head slightly. "I hate to do that to you. I promise I'll unmute you just as soon as I finish talking to Mr. Cedric, so please, just be patient."

Sofia was skilled enough at beak-reading to realize that Wormwood had not accepted her apology gracefully, but she resolved to make it up to him later. She had more important things to do.

She turned her attention back to the sorcerer to find that he was staring at her slack jawed again, his eyes glued to the wand in her hand, as if he feared what spell might come out of it next, particularly if he continued to give her unfavorable answers. She laughed nervously and then gingerly put the wand back on the work table.

"Sorry about using it without asking," she apologized and he silently shook his head as he remembered to close his mouth.

Sofia sighed again and gave him a weak smile.

"Sorry," she said, "I really seem to be doing everything backwards. I came here to apologize to you, and I keep doing things that I have to apologize for. I promise that I'm not trying to be difficult," she said honestly, "I guess that's just how I am."

"_You are,_" Cedric answered at once, and with absolute certainty.

This answer after all his earlier hesitation caused Sofia to forget her anxiety and laugh companionably.

"You're honest," she said, tilting her head slightly to the side again. "Now it's my turn to be honest. I'm sorry if I'm not very good at saying this. I wish I could really say all the things that are in my heart, but I know I don't really have the words, so I hope you can be satisfied by what I do have." She breathed in deeply, and then began to speak, "Once upon a time," she said, "There was a little girl who lived in a little village and sold shoes at a shoe shop with her mother. That was me. One day, my mom up and married the king, and my whole life got turned absolutely upside down. I became a princess, and even more crazily important than that, I got a new brother and a sister, and a new dad, and I had to start at a brand new school where I didn't really know the first thing about anything. It was awful and there were times when I was really lonely. It's funny to think of now," she said with a quiet laugh, "But I used to dream of going back to our little house, to our little shoe shop, like that could undo everything that had happened." Then she shook her head briefly as if clearing away nostalgia, "Little by little, I stopped having that dream, because I started to discover that even though things were different, that didn't mean they were bad. And I learned that things are always changing, that you can't hold on to 'now' forever, because it gets away from you, that you have to love all the days as they come. Being a princess hasn't always been easy," she said, "In fact, sometimes it's been really, really hard. I've come here so many times over the years, because I needed this thing, or that thing, because I was afraid, or discouraged. You didn't always give me easy answers," she said with a wry smile, "But you helped me grow and grow and grow and grow," she said, raising her arms above her head and spreading them. "I got to be the Sofia I am today because of all the help you've given me up until now, and more than anything, I want to thank you for that."

She dropped into a picturesquely beautiful curtsey.

Cedric looked at her steadily for several moments, and he seemed to waver, raising a hand briefly as if he meant to speak, but then he turned his back on her, folding his arms across his chest. When he spoke he sounded tired and remote.

"You shouldn't thank me," he said flatly. "Half the time I wasn't trying to help you at all, it just turned out that way. When I was trying to help you, I was usually just using you for my own ends. I was never trying to be your friend. I was generally trying to take over your father's kingdom."

Intense discomfort at his situation had made him brutally, cruelly, and perhaps stupidly honest. He could no longer see a way out of his situation. What he wanted most was to be rid of Sofia, whatever that cost him. He wanted to crawl into a dark hole and never see the sun again. He felt dry and pale, like a corpse in the desert, and he waited patiently for her tears, for her to sob pathetically - as he felt like doing at this exact moment - and run off crying.

But she did not do this.

Instead, she said, "Oh, I know."

This caused him to whirl on her in astonishment, his mouth again open like a venus fly trap.

"_You know?"_ he demanded with a mixture of furor and absolute confusion. "What do you mean _you know?"_

She cocked her head to the side and raised an eyebrow, "Well," she said, shifting slightly on her feet, toeing at the stone in front of her winsomely. "You're not exactly all that subtle about it usually." She pushed her teeth against her lower lip again. "No offense."

The color drained from Cedric's face as he sat down limply at his desk.

"How long have you known?" he asked, ashen.

Sofia waved her hands rapidly, "Oh, not from the very beginning. I was really, really fooled for a while."

"You were?" Cedric asked, perking up as if she had shed a single ray of light upon him.

"I definitely was," Sofia nodded emphatically.

But his wavering self-confidence collapsed as quickly as it had been born.

Cedric let out a very pathetic, hopeless sounding sigh and waved his own hand at her weakly. "Well, if you knew all of this already, then why did you come? You can't tell me that you don't _mind _that I've tried to take over the kingdom a few dozen times - "

Sofia shrugged, then said honestly, "I really don't. You see, even though you've tried taking over the kingdom more than once, you've never actually _succeeded _at doing it. I'd have more of a problem with that," she explained.

Cedric buried his head in his hands, "So you only tolerate me because I'm such a _terrible_ evil mastermind - " he lamented loudly.

"No, it's not that, I promise," Sofia insisted, hopping from foot to foot. "You see, over the years you sort of left off trying to take over the kingdom. I don't think you've tried in more than four years."

Cedric sniffled a little as he thought about it. "Well, not seriously," he admitted, sitting up again.

"You see?" Sofia said with a warm smile, "I don't like it so much when you're trying to take over my dad's kingdom. I think that's a dream that's too small for you," she assured.

"You think I should try and take over the world instead?" Cedric asked in confusion, and Sofia laughed again, sweet and even.

"I guess, in a way," she said. "I think you could be the best sorcerer that there ever has been, and make discoveries that no one's even imagined yet. I feel like you've closed yourself up inside a little box, and you don't know how to get out," she said helplessly. "Sometimes you come out, and really, those are the very best times," she said, and the warmth in her voice was enough to make him blush, so he looked studiously at the ground rather that meet her sparkling eyes. He briefly worried that she was about to burst into song, but she did not. Instead, she said, "One of the things I love about you is that you can be much bigger than you first seem. You cast a long shadow," she said winsomely.

A moment passed, and then another, and neither said anything, but then Sofia went completely pink.

"Oh," she said, "Oh, I guess I said it then. That wasn't really the way I meant to say it. I really meant to tell you all the different things I love about you, about how funny you can be, and about how I think you're really clever, and about how nice you are, especially when you don't have to be, and about how I love it when you smile, even when it's sort of sinister - " it was all tumbling out of her now, all out of order as she waggled her hands rapidly in distress, as if she were attempting to tread water with little success.

"_I can't,_" Cedric cut into her confused outpouring and the pain and distress in his voice was such that it completely silenced her. "I can _not_."

Sofia hesitated, her face still flushed, her breathing rapid, and then asked in a small voice, "Why?"

"_I will not take it_," Cedric reiterated sharply. "I will not take it, and I will not take you," he insisted, and she could see his hands tighten on the edge of the worktable. "I cannot," he repeated. "If I accepted what it is you offer, I would not be capable of giving it up. You're very young, and you are well-loved," he said helplessly. "I am sure what you feel right now, you believe you feel very strongly, but I am certain it will pass and you will find someone more - " he struggled. "Someone more appropriate. What you feel now, it will pass away, but if I have hold of you I will not let you go, regardless of your wishes. Let me be, princess, unless you wish to make me a much greater villain than I am now."

Having finished saying what he meant to say, Cedric turned his back on her again.

Sofia was hastily rubbing at the tears which had formed in the corners of her eyes and sniffling, but not because she had been rejected.

_She had not been rejected._

"Mr. Cedric," she said as she made to cross the space between them, "I still haven't said all I wanted to say - "

On his perch, Wormwood was still flapping and squawking silently, as if he anticipated what was to come.

But then something very singular happened.

Sofia put her foot down on the unfamiliar rug that was spread before the worktable and as she did she realized that something was very wrong. The rug folded up around her foot and her foot turned under her and skidded into a hole all the way up to her knee, causing her to stumble and fall. She grabbed at the work table as she fell, hoping to brace herself up, but all she managed to catch was the edge of the drop cloth, which she pulled down on top of her, along with everything else on it: assorted books, a silver scale, and one stoppered bottle.

Cedric had turned even as he heard her first noise of confusion and pain and nearly shrieked when he saw the worktable empty out on top of her. He was on his knees in a moment, dragging the drop cloth off of her, checking that the scales hadn't struck her on the head, and then sputtering and coughing, because the bottle that had become unstoppered had begun emitting a most unwholesome pink vapor.

"Princess Sofia," he managed between coughs, "Are you all right?"

"I think so," she answered, then tried to move the foot that was wedged into the hole and winced, "Well, mostly. I don't know about my ankle, and I think I might be stuck."

Cedric grabbed after the spilled bottle and turned it around so he could read the label and determine if it was possibly poisonous. It was _Abscondit Corculilum. _Several days of sitting ignored on his worktable had turned the liquid solution into a gas. Sofia was coughing now too. Cedric had begun to feel slightly light-headed.

He reached up onto the worktable and managed to get his hand on his wand, which he brandished at the offending hole.

"_Reditto Pedis!_" he shouted and out came Sofia's foot with a pop, although her boot remained entrapped. Then without further warning he had gathered her up in his arms and put her safely on his desk, out of the way of the pink fumes, which he dismissed with another spell. Then he paused briefly, tiredly rubbing at his forehead.

"And we still have no idea what that even does," he admitted, throwing a hand up.

And then he turned to look back at Sofia.

For a moment, he was very confused because his mind could not register what it is his eyes saw. Sofia seemed to be at the center of an intricate piece of art. All around her and radiating off of her were slender threads, curling like ironwork, and from these threads hung beautiful, vivid shards of color, like bits of stained glass or pieces of stone from a mosaic. They filled the room behind her, crowding up against the ceiling. In fact, they were beginning to bell around her, like the petals of a flower. As he looked from shard to brilliant shard in confusion, all at once he was assailed powerfully by a feeling of warmth, as if someone had grabbed tightly onto his hand and was ready to tug him off in some unknown direction. The feeling was familiar, but when he looked down at his hands, he found they were empty. Then he felt tickled, as if a thousand bubbles were crawling right up his spine and it felt so like Sofia's laughter that he almost _heard _an impudent giggle. And then there was a very peaceful feeling, like being swallowed up in comfort, and another like being touched by the sun for the first time. He felt adored.

It was not something that he might have put into words before, but now he had one that fit. _ He felt adored_.

Suddenly, Sofia was tugging on his sleeve excitedly, and she was speaking almost too rapidly to understand.

"Sense," she said, "_Sense_, Mr. Cedric. That word didn't mean 'sense.' It was meant to be read as 'feelings.' That's the answer! 'Something hidden, something ever-present, but kept from view,'" she parroted perfectly. "Feelings, Mr. Cedric. They're something ever-present, but kept from view. _Abscondit Corculilum_ is a potion to reveal hidden feelings!"

She was so elated at her discovery it was if she expected a gold star from him.

"P-Princess Sofia, can you - " he began with great trepidation.

"_YES_," she answered emphatically, and he turned to look over his shoulder like a man facing his own death.

There, like polished jewels hung on pale blue string hung his own feelings, as plain as anything. The ones near the ground were sooty, as if he had dragged them along behind him for a long time, unseen and unnoticed. The higher ones were more presentable and less generally depressing, but the hearts of each one of the shards gleamed brilliantly, even the sooty ones that looked trodden-upon.

He passed a hand in front of his face and tried to think of a way to explain himself.

He could think of nothing.

All at once, he realized that Sofia had begun speaking again.

"Mr. Cedric, I just noticed," she said as she looked around the room. "It's awfully cluttered in here, and I don't just mean us."

Cedric flushed, but still could think of nothing to say.

"All these books are from the castle library, aren't they?" she wondered aloud. She began reading the titles off to herself and made a realization, "It's all poetry, and fairy tales, and romantic novels," she said in amazement. "There must be a hundred of them. They're piled up everywhere."

"I was looking," he began haltingly, "I was looking for a story about a princess who ended up with a sorcerer," he finished and felt very dull and stupid. "And I couldn't find even one."

"Maybe that's because it's our story," Sofia suggested gently, "And it hasn't been written yet because we haven't written it."

"Princess - " Cedric protested weakly still keeping his eyes on the ground, "I told you - "

"And I told you that I hadn't finished saying what I wanted to say," she reminded him, then took another deep breath. It was time to gather up all the threads of her courage. "I know you said that you can't take what I have to give you, because you say you won't be willing to give it back. Well that's all right," she said with an exasperated laugh, "I don't want you to give it back. I want you to keep it for always. Otherwise I wouldn't have offered it in the first place," she said very sensibly.

"You don't understand what you're saying," Cedric answered her crossly, and so Sofia planted her hands on her hips.

"I do so!" she insisted, the color rising in her cheeks. "I don't want anybody else but you! I'm willing to wait until you're ready. I can be really patient, I promise. But it's you. It's always been you. I'll wait patiently until you ask me, but I'm telling you right now, when you ask me, my answer is going to be 'yes.' That's because it's always been 'yes' and it's always going to be 'yes.' It'll probably be a different 'yes' tomorrow than it is today, but it'll still be a 'yes.' If you ask me every day, from now until I die, it'll be 'yes.' If you want, you can keep asking me until you're satisfied."

Cedric's brows drew together.

"Are you saying you'll, I mean, that you want to, _with me?_" he asked, turning very pink himself, despite his bewilderment. "You can't," he denied vehemently, but then he seemed to be considering. "Can you?" he wondered, as if she were truly mystifying, like gravity. "Are you sure?" he asked, as if he still could not wrap his mind around the idea.

"_YES_," she answered again, very strongly, but then she laughed, her tension broken, "Although you'd better ask again at some point. I mean, more plainly. You know what I'm going to say, but it's the thought that counts." She gave him an impish wink. "You can do it in your own way, in your own time. Until then, I'm going to act like you've already asked," she warned with a smile, "Because _I've already answered_."

"Princess Sofia," Cedric protested again, and felt very warm.

"Well?" she asked with a laugh, "Do you accept? My offer, I mean."

"I," Cedric said, and then swallowed hard. "I think I have to," he said. "I don't really see that I have any other choice. Princess," he said, eying her with great scrutiny, "You drive a very hard bargain."

"I am very good at negotiation," Sofia admitted, then winced as Cedric inadvertently brushed up against her ankle.

"Ugh," Cedric said as he caught sight of it. "That is grotesquely swollen. Sit still. I'll have it down in no time, although you won't be able to walk on it for a while."

"I suppose I'll just have to sit here then," Sofia said innocently, "Unless you feel like carrying me around some more."

He looked up at her, ready with a dry remark, but found she was silently giggling into her hands and so he only rolled his eyes as he went about gathering the things he needed to bind her ankle. As he worked, the magnificent spectacle wrought by the potion slowly dissipated, leaving nothing but the memory of the scene behind. Their feelings remained, however, now somewhat _less hidden, _at least from one another. He hoped, at least for his own health, that they remained hidden from the public at large, at least for the time being. He was not yet ready for that conversation with the king.

Meanwhile, Sofia studied the hole that still held her boot somewhere near its bottom.

"Is that hole - " she began.

"Yes, it's from the other day," he answered shortly. "That stuff might have eaten all the way to the floor below if you hadn't neutralized it when you did. Thank you, Princess," he said, glancing up at her briefly as he knelt to bandage her foot.

"But why didn't you just fix it with a spell?" she asked in confusion. "Why cover it up with a rug? That was dangerous!" she lectured.

"I didn't want to look at it," Cedric answered with a frown that was close to a pout. "I didn't want to _think _about it."

"So you just covered it up?" Sofia asked, disbelieving.

"Yes, Princess Sofia," he said, his cheeks coloring darkly, "That is what I did."

At this she burst out laughing. She laughed so hard that her foot bounced up and down, making it difficult to bind her ankle.

"Yes," he said crossly, "Please do have a good laugh at my expense."

"Oh Mr. Cedric," she managed as her giggles subsided, and she hugged herself tightly, "I'm sorry, it's just, well, _that's so like you_."

He flushed and looked away, feeling ridiculous.

"And all that time you kept telling me that you had whooping cough, you were sneaking down to the library to bring back book after book after book," she said. "If I'd known, I'd have just waited for you there."

"Princess Sofia - " he began in consternation, having at last finished binding her foot.

"Mr. Cedric, I love you," she said very honestly and openly, her cheeks rosy and her fingers laced together over her heart.

He let out a sigh and his anger evaporated.

"Listen," he said as he leaned on the desk next to her, "You can't keep calling me that."

"Why?" Sofia asked, a small smile curling up on her mouth. "I call you that because I respect you."

"I know," he said between clenched teeth, because that was obvious, but beside the point. "And I appreciate that. But you can't keep doing it. Our circumstances have changed."

"Really?" Sofia asked innocently, and looked very doe-eyed.

Cedric rolled his eyes again.

"Yes, really," he said. "I can't have you calling me that if you're going to be my w-" he stuttered, failed utterly, then tried again, "My wi-" It was as if he had an allergic reaction to the very word. At the moment, it was still too potent for him to say. He was beginning to feel completely exhausted. "You just can't keep doing it, is that clear?" he asked, feeling a little drained.

"If that's the way you want it," Sofia said, and her pleasure was palpable. "What should I call you instead?" she wanted to know.

"Cedric," was all he said.

And then he kissed her.

This kiss lasted considerably longer than twelve seconds and reacquainted them both with the heady rush of euphoria that had resulted from their first tentative brush with one another. It was strong and sweet and as much a mess as their feelings, but it was earnest. It tickled and it _agitated_. It made him lean in intently as she put her arms around his neck, and it made her curl her toes as he leaned forward. By the end of it, Cedric was even more certain of what he had admitted to her earlier.

He had not had a choice in the matter.

But neither had he any complaints.

On his perch and still silenced, Wormwood had _many _complaints, but these would remain unvoiced, until a later date.


	4. Strange Bedfellows 1 of 1

**Sofia the First**

**_Cedric x Sofia_**

_By Gabihime at gmail dot com_

_Strange Bedfellows 1/1_

* * *

**Summary:** There are times when a seventeen year old princess finds it best to exercise discretion in regards to her regular bedmate.

* * *

Cedric the Sensational was awakened rather rudely by being shaken until his teeth rattled. He rubbed a hand across his forehead, blinking in the bright morning sunlight as a disheveled princess came into focus.

"Wake up, wake up, wake up," she cried, continuing to shake him. "I'm late! We overslept! They're already missing me at breakfast!"

"_Princess_," Cedric grumbled most unpleasantly, "I am awake. You can stop shaking me."

"Well, you don't look like you're awake!" announced Sofia as she struggled to crawl over top of him. She lost her balance as she did and they both ended up rolling off the bed in a tangle of blankets.

Cedric was left with one bare foot on the canopied bed and a disgusted looking rabbit staring him directly in the face.

"I don't see why we have to do this every morning," complained Clover, eyeing the upside down sorcerer dubiously. "You'd think you'd have learned by now to get up with an alarm clock. Or that the grim reaper here wouldn't sleep like he was actually dead."

"You'd think," Sofia agreed, laughing nervously as she ran around, hunting up her shoes. "And he doesn't sleep like he's dead. He's just a sound sleeper. He works awfully hard all day as the court's sorcerer, you know. It's no wonder he's tired at the end of the day."

Cedric slowly disentangled himself from the blankets, rubbing at his eyes as he got to his feet.

"Sofia, I don't really think it's _working_ _hard_ that tires him out," Clover said, rolling his eyes.

Sofia giggled indiscreetly into her hand.

"Is your rabbit lackey making disparaging comments about me again?" demanded Cedric, pursing his lips. "I ought to make him into a pair of bunny slippers."

"Yeah, I'll be scared of you the day it rains jelly beans," Clover scoffed.

"Of course he isn't," she reassured the gentleman who was currently shrugging into his robes. "Clover's just concerned about your health, is all. It's important to get a lot of rest, after all."

Sofia, still in her nightgown, crossed the space to meet him and gave him an early morning kiss, which seemed to improve his temper considerably. She knew she had to sweeten him up for the news that was coming.

"It's too late for you to slip out the usual way," she said, squirming out of her gauzy nightgown and squirming into a lacy petticoat. Sofia getting dressed was a three ring circus - acrobatic, daring, and always enthusiastic - very much worth watching if one were interested in such things (and one was). "You might have to go out the window," she said apologetically.

"Wonderful," Cedric groaned as he recovered his wand from the bedside table. "I'm so looking forward to a relaxing morning stroll through a frozen garden filled with guards. When someone stops to ask me where I've been, I'll just say 'oh, helping the princess with her garters,'" he said, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Mr. Chuckles can't go out the window,even if I'd sometimes like to push him out," objected Clover from where he sat in the window seat. "It snowed last night. If he goes out your window, everyone will know that _somebody _left that way. Not to mention it's pretty much_ broad daylight_. Prince Charming tries the garters line, the guards might really throw him in the dungeon."

Sofia stuck her tongue out at Clover as she pushed her dress into Cedric's hands.

"Help me into it?" she asked, like she always asked.

He helped her into it like he always did, and soon she was fluffing her hair and trying to put her tiara on straight.

"Not out the window then," she said, indicating the new snowfall. Her slippered feet were cold on the floor and so she stepped closer to him, putting both her hands in his pockets. "It's got to be the hard way, then."

"Sofia - " Cedric objected.

"That's all I can think of, unless you've got a better idea?" she asked hopefully.

He shook his head and she shrugged.

"The hard way, then. I'm going to be late for school soon," she said. "Only please try and make sure we don't end up in the royal dining hall again. Mom and dad are still having breakfast, and it was so hard to explain when it happened last time."

"I got nervous," Cedric said defensively, crossing his arms over his chest again.

"Oh, I know you did," Sofia apologized, threading her arms through his and hanging off of him. "Of course it wasn't on purpose and I know you won't do it again. It was silly of me to say anything about it," she said, rising on her toes to kiss him again.

As she broke the kiss, she recognized that they were both in a downstairs broom closet, crammed between a wet mop and a dustpan. A kiss usually eased the difficulty of "the hard way," Sofia had discovered. In fact, if Cedric was reluctant or uncertain about anything, a kiss usually did a great deal to help things along. Sofia had heard that kisses from princes were bound to break curses, but she had learned that kisses from princesses granted wishes. _Her_ wishes were always being granted, at least. He didn't complain much either.

"Thank you Cedric," Sofia said very sweetly. "I'll see you after school! And remember, don't come out until Clover gives you the all clear signal."

And then she was gone in a clatter and whirl, even as he said, "Good day, Princess Sofia."

When he finally struggled out of the broom closet he again faced the judgmental eyes of a small grey rabbit.

"Well Flopsy, do you have something to say?" Cedric demanded haughtily, but he had learned by now how important it was to stay on the good side of all of Sofia's little forest minions.

Before he left the hall, he conjured a basket of radishes for the rabbit and they parted as they always parted: uneasy allies devoted to the same cause - Princess Sofia.

* * *

Sofia was not really all that distressed about the state of her love life. She was quite satisfied, actually, although all the sneaking around was a little hair-raising at times. It had been far more frustrating before, when she hadn't been sure of how he felt. Now, she felt able to do anything, to say anything, to _be _anything. She was determined to do things in her own way, in her own time.

Fortunately, Enchancia's court sorcerer was willing to accommodate her.

At seventeen, Sofia was approaching majority. She would be graduating from Royal Preparatory at the spring ceremony, and at that time she thought she might approach her parents with her plans for the future, which were quite creative and expansive, and figured one particular sorcerer very prominently. Although polite and friendly to all-comers, she had no interest in a future that anyone else devised for her. Her heart wasn't a blank slate. She had years and years of silly, warm, colorful memories crayoned into the book of her self. What had begun small had become quite large, and in the end she couldn't even begin to number the pages of "why I love you."

Their intimate involvement had all begun unexpectedly some months before - or rather, it had begun unexpectedly _for him_. Sofia had been impatiently expecting it for some time. At ten years old, she had decided that she was going to marry Cedric when she got old enough - perhaps twelve. It seemed very sensible to her. She liked him the very most out of all the people she had ever met. She worried that other people didn't understand him very well. To her, he was like a watercolor book whose colors were a mystery until they appeared suddenly, upon application of Sofia. There were all sorts of fascinating thoughts and feelings bottled up inside of him. Even if other people didn't appreciate his prowess as a wizard, she would always be his number one apprentice, ready to reassure and encourage him. She was a very improper princess (although wildly popular with practically everyone) and so perhaps it wasn't very surprising she had tied her thread to such an unlikely candidate. He had always been there when she needed him, even if he had sometimes been slightly distracted by his own plans.

Her feelings hadn't changed over time. If Sofia's heart was any one thing, it was constant, even if it was ever-changing, like the rainbow sheen of oil on water. The exact nature of her feelings had both broadened and become more specific as time had slipped away. Beside the words 'friend' and 'ally' had gradually appeared the word 'confidant,' and finally the extremely satisfying if flush-inducing word 'lover.' They had spent eight summers together, eight winters, and had already written a rich lifetime's worth of memories on the leaves of their book of the past as the pages turned. Without either of them realizing it as it happened day by day, Sofia had grown up. She had surprised him by kissing him in the corner of his workshop one afternoon when he had been trying to explain something about a particular potion.

He had knocked three books off his desk and upset a vial of particularly corrosive liquid in the chaos that ensued. It had not been an instant success, like the kiss that breaks a bad fairy's curse, but she had not given up, and once his abject horror had passed, he had accepted her.

In the end it turned out that he had rather liked the kiss more than he had at first cared to admit, that he liked _her _more than he at first cared to admit, and this had made her light up like a firework. Although he was awkward about sharing his own feelings and afraid of being hurt, he was generous and sincere. The evening he had picked her up, put her on his desk, and kissed her tenderly and honestly while Wormwood squawked indignantly on his perch was easily one of the three best moments in a life that was practically _bursting_ with best moments.

This in turn had led to their current circumstances.

Sofia had consulted with a number of princesses on her situation RE: Court Sorcerer and the girls had all offered her a lot of good advice. Ariel in particular had an ocean of ideas about how one kept one's parents from finding out what one was up to until it was absolutely necessary that they be told. Jasmine had informed her that the quickest way for a princess to make a man into a prince (barring the intervention of a genie) was to marry him herself. This Sofia was quite ready to believe considering the example of her own parents. If the shoe fit, after all...

Finally, Belle had been very sympathetic about others not immediately grasping the good qualities of one's significant other. Sofia had quite appreciated this bit of moral support. All in all, the consortium of princesses agreed that Sofia ought to follow her heart where it led her, and there was no question that it led her to Cedric. Even if she closed her eyes and turned around and round, like playing blind man's bluff, she always came back to Cedric. Her heart was a compass and he was magnetic north.

It was good that the princesses offered her this advice, because while it was what she would have done regardless, she liked having the validation. She was a princess who liked putting ducks in a row, even if it took her a long time to properly arrange them. It was also a relief to know they were behind her. There was no denying that princesses understood matters of the heart, and there was absolutely no arguing with _a lot of princesses who were all in agreement._

When the time came, Sofia was confident she could secure the blessings of her parents. If she was to win the blessings of the kingdom, she was going to have to educate them about Cedric's good points - a list she considered quite lengthy.

And so Sofia studied quite hard at school, was a good sport, minded her Ps and Qs, and only occasionally took breaks to dream about the misty future, both multicolored and distant and more immediately accessible.

* * *

After stumbling out of the broom closet, slightly damp from having been pressed against a wet mop for several minutes, Cedric managed to go about his day without incident, although distracting thoughts of an enchantingly meddlesome princess were never far off.

She could get him into trouble even when she was absent, it seemed.

Whenever the king called Cedric into the audience chamber these days, the sorcerer was always absolutely certain that he had been found out and would surely face _consequences_. It always turned out to be routine business, but this never stopped Cedric from agonizing about it. He had bitten all the nails on both his hands down to the quick. Cedric was absolutely positive that every time King Roland made small talk about Sofia in his presence that he lost several hours from his life, if not _days_.

_Yes, she did seem to be glowing these days. Yes, it was probably on account of the care she took of her health. Yes, she lit up the room when she smiled. Yes, she was very sweet and thoughtful. Yes, she was so lively she always seemed to be going a dozen directions at once. Yes, she was very inventive and intelligent. Yes, he was unmistakably, stupidly, and dreadfully in love with her._

Cedric lived his life in constant horror that he would let this last truth slip out.

It had slipped out once, in front of the king, but Roland had just laughed.

"I suppose everybody loves Sofia," he had said with a paternal smile, "She's just very easy to love."

Cedric had managed to bottle his indignance before it had exploded out of him quite inappropriately.

No, majesty, not everyone loved Sofia like he did, or if they did, Cedric was going to have to dispose of them in a particularly gruesome way, just to prove a point. He was his mother's son, after all.

Rather than the minefield that was the royal audience chamber, Cedric much preferred to be holed up in his workshop, left to his own devices, or perhaps writing another letter to his mother. His letters had had so much Sofia in them lately that mummy had begun suggesting he might try a nefarious scheme to ensnare her affections, and thus wrap her around his little finger. Alas, he had not the heart to tell mummy that the shoe was very much on the other foot. The amulet stayed around her pretty little neck and he found he was content with that outcome. That was just the way these things sometimes turned out, he thought.

After all, if the amulet was _hers_, and she insisted that she was _his_, that made the amulet his by proxy, or as good as his, anyway. He would allow her to keep possession of it out of the goodness of his heart.

He was fond of how it looked against her clavicles.

And despite how hazardous his current sleeping habits were to his health and continued career, Cedric found that he really could not help himself. He began most mornings wet, in a broom closet, since she very nearly _always _overslept, and they _always _had to come down the hard way, but then that wasn't really true, because he began nearly every morning tangled up in warm blankets with Sofia, which made the damp part in the broom closet worth enduring. When he didn't spend the evening in the rooms of the Second Princess of Enchancia, he was cross and all out of sorts the next day. He had discovered that he did not think it was particularly nice to sleep without her, despite the fact that she sometimes kicked him in the spine when she was asleep.

And so he would continue to take risks, continue to walk a high wire above what he was sure was certain doom, because he was no longer interested in a life without her in it.

* * *

When the second princess at last blustered into her rooms at nine o'clock, she found the court sorcerer sitting in a dressing chair in her closet, idly reading a book: _Modern Marvels of Engineering. _

"I didn't know you were interested in engineering," he said, eyeing her as she flounced in and immediately began scrambling out of her day dress.

"I'm a princess," she announced, "And that means I'm interested in practically everything, particularly engineering," she said. "Help me out of this?"

He helped her out of it, as he always did, although sometimes it took a bit of tugging to get her out of her ridiculous dresses. She was soon comfortable in a ruffled lavender nightgown and ready for the evening's entertainments. She flopped down on his knee, quite uninvited, and regarded the book herself.

She had brought a basket of sandwiches with her.

Evenings were the best times. They were only rarely disturbed as Sofia had made it known that as a growing princess, she required quite a lot of sleep and therefore went to bed very early. She regularly locked the door to her rooms after nine o'clock, and he locked the door to his, so no one would find him missing if they went looking. This made an evening spent in her room quite cozy. She always brought bedtime snacks with her - enough for two, because she was a growing princess and had a healthy appetite.

Before nine o'clock she was Enchancia's Princess Sofia, and she acquitted herself splendidly in that role. She had time for everyone. She sang and chatted, solved people's problems, made all sorts of friends, helped the kingdom by fulfilling her royal duties, and did so many good deeds that the Amulet of Avalor practically hummed with goodwill.

But after nine o'clock she was Cedric's Princess Sofia. He was willing to share her with the rest of the kingdom only because she insisted that she liked him best.

Sofia found his petulant jealousy charming, although she did her best to gently discourage it, lest it grow unruly and make him bitter. Whenever she teased him over it, she always reminded him that her evenings and mornings were his, which was something no one else could claim.

Their nights, however, belonged to the both of them.

Their evenings were sweet and full of wholesome activities. Sometimes they read together, sometimes they talked a great deal, sometimes they played board games, and sometimes they just sat and enjoyed the silence. It was particularly nice on winter evenings, when she could put on her fluffy robe, curl up next to him on the little sofa, and talk over the events of the day while having cocoa made my Clover and Whatnaught.

But tonight was perhaps not a night for cocoa and talking over the day. Just as Sofia was settling down against Cedric, there was a knock at the door.

This was altogether unusual. They had been very rarely disturbed in all the time that they had started keeping private company with one another. Unaccustomed to such an intrusion during this sanctified time, Sofia mildly panicked. She stood Cedric up, marched him over to the corner of the closet, forced him to sit down on the floor, and then piled several spangled purple dresses over him.

It was really not a very convincing disguise. He looked at her with half-lidded eyes and Sofia winced.

"Just stay right here," she said. "I'll get rid of whoever it is, I promise! Just don't run off," she pleaded.

He agreed to stay, and she was off, lickety-split to the hallway door.

It was Amber, and so Sofia was obliged to at least open the door.

One did not keep one's elder sister waiting, particularly when one's elder sister was a princess.

"I've got an early start tomorrow - Princess Summit, you know - and I would like to borrow a pair of your topaz slippers," Amber said, yawning languidly. "I think they'll be just the right touch to finish off my _ensemble_."

"Oh!" said Sofia. "Oh, oh." She blanched. The slippers were in the closet. The closet where Cedric was. The slippers were in the closet with Cedric. She gave Amber what she hoped was her most pleasant princess smile in an attempt to cover her wild anxiety. "Of course you can," she said brightly. "You wait here. I'll just go get them for you."

She wasn't sure exactly how polite it was to ask the first princess to wait in the hall, but Sofia didn't see that she had many options. Amber wasn't perturbed by her sister's breach of conduct, however. She simply sashayed into the room without invitation.

"Don't be silly, Sofia," she said with a shrug. "You've got six pairs of topaz slippers. How will you know which pair I want?"

"Well," Sofia said, leaping between Amber and the door to the closet, "You could describe them to me? How topazy would you say they are? Like extremely topazy, or just sort of topazy?"

Amber rolled her eyes, "Really, Sofia, it'll be faster for me to get them myself."

Despite Sofia's protests, Amber pushed past her into the closet, and Sofia readied herself for a shrill and indignant shriek as the first princess discovered the court sorcerer under a pile of dresses and quite possibly accused him of underwear theft.

When no shriek came, Sofia followed her sister into the closet, wondering if Cedric had been forced to turn Amber into stone - and possibly himself into stone as well, by mistake. She found no such tableau. Instead, Amber was calmly sorting through Sofia's shoes. Sofia scanned the room in blank amazement, but could find no sign of Cedric. The dresses she had piled on him for camouflage were lying discarded in the corner. Perhaps he had escaped back to his tower after all.

Well, that was rotten luck.

At last Amber found the pair of bejeweled shoes that she wanted and retired to bed, but not before eyeing the pile of dresses in the corner of the closet with a suspect eye.

"You really should clean that up, Sofia," she suggested, and then made her grand exit.

After she had gone, Sofia locked the door behind her and let out a great sigh as she slumped against it. Then she took a deep breath and marched herself back into the closet to search for her missing sorcerer.

"Are you still in here Cedric?" she wondered aloud, dropping down to her hands and knees to look under the hem of a particularly bouffant skirt.

"I am," came a very high, reedy voice. "I thought you said you were going to send whoever it was away."

"Well, I was, but it was Amber, and she didn't want to take my suggestions - " began Sofia, turning around, "You sound really strange, Cedric - "

Of course he sounded strange. He was about twelve inches tall, and struggling to get out of the pile of dresses. She immediately swooped over to him and scooped him up.

"You're adorable!" she announced.

"Princess Sofia," he began in indignation, "I am certainly not adorable. Dashing and handsome, perhaps, but _not_ adorable. Put me down this instant!"

"But you're so cuuuute," she protested, rubbing the top of his head with the tip of one of her fingers. Her cheeks had begun to flush rosily, and the very small Cedric turned the color of a ripe strawberry.

"Unhand me!" he insisted, and then sputtered out "_Magnata_!"

Of course, the sudden surprise of having a very much full size Cedric in her hands sent them both tumbling over in a tangle, and Sofia bumped her head on another pair of topaz slippers. She sat up ruefully rubbing her head.

"Well, I don't regret it at all," she declared. "You _were _adorable."

"Princess," Cedric managed to wheeze out with some difficulty, "Please get off of me."

With a start Sofia realized she was happily sitting square on Cedric's chest. She scrambled to get off of him and helped him to sit up. He seemed slightly dazed, possibly from lack of oxygen.

"Oh, I am sorry, Cedric," she apologized, and planted a kiss on his forehead for good measure. It was her own magic spell. This seemed to do much to restore his good will, and she was just helping him to his feet when there was another knock at the door.

He gave her a look, but she shook her head frantically.

"I promise. This time I'll definitely just send them away. Stay in here a little longer, pretty please?" she begged, gently pushing him back toward the pile of dresses.

He rolled his eyes but retreated.

Sofia again closed the closet carefully before going to the great hallway doors.

"Whoever it is, I'm really very much very tired tonight, so I'd really really like to get some sleep, if it can wait until morning," she told the door.

"Well, I would really really like to get that book I loaned you back," came an uncertain voice.

"Oh, James," Sofia sighed in relief as she unlocked the door. "All right. I'll get it for you."

She turned around to retrieve it from the bedside table and then realized in horror that the book that James wanted was the same one Cedric had been reading in the closet when she had first come upon him.

The book was in the closet with Cedric, right at this exact moment.

She wheeled on James with a chipper smile and suddenly announced, "Sorry, I seem to have lost it. Can I maybe give it back to you tomorrow?"

James shrugged. "It's no big deal, but I don't mind helping you look for it."

"Oh no, I don't want to trouble you - " Sofia trailed off because the crown prince had already pushed his way into her room and begun a search for his missing book. At the moment, he was crawling under the bed.

After a little spelunking while Sofia shifted about nervously, James emerged from under the dust ruffle with a familiar object in his hands. It was one of Cedric's slippers, one that he had lost several nights previous and complained about to no end.

"What's this?" James asked, wrinkling his nose. "It sure doesn't look like it'll fit you."

Sofia crossed the space between herself and James like she was off a starting block and seized the slipper from him.

"Oh this?" she asked, her voice climbing in mild panic. "This is just," her eyes darted around the room until they landed on the rabbit who was sardonically watching this whole scene from the window seat. "It's one of Clover's chew toys," she said, flinging the shoe at the rabbit, who ducked it artfully.

"Oh, okay," James said with a shrug. "I didn't know rabbits had chew toys."

"They definitely do," Sofia insisted with a deliberate nod. "Lots and lots of chew toys. Clover just loves that one! It's his favorite."

Behind her, Clover made a face as if he were ill.

"I don't know if you should let your rabbit chew on old shoes," James said with a raised eyebrow. "It seems like it might be making him sick."

"Well then, I definitely won't anymore," Sofia said with another deliberate nod, moving to confiscate the slipper from Clover. She shoved it into a drawer in her vanity table before wagging a finger at him. "No more chewy shoes for you!" she warned.

Clover rolled his eyes expressively.

During her chastisement, Sofia desperately sent a message to Clover with a combination of body language and interpretive dance.

_Book book book. Get the book from the closet._

Sofia had no idea how she'd go about explaining anything else of Cedric's that James might manage to turn up in his investigation of her room. She needed to get the prince out of her room as soon as possible.

By striking up a conversation on combustion engines, Sofia managed to distract James from his detective work while Clover fetched the book.

"I'm not even going to tell you how many carrots you owe me," said the rabbit as he pressed the book into the hands Sofia had clasped nervously behind her back.

She gave him her best winsome look over her shoulder, and he seemed pacified. Then she hustled James out of the room with good night wishes and again locked the door.

In the closet, Cedric was sitting in the dressing chair again, his cheek propped against his palm.

"Now do you think we might have a little peace?" he wondered grimly, "Or ought I retire to my own rooms before the rest of the royal family comes for a slumber party?"

"Oh Cedric," Sofia laughed helplessly. "No one else is going to come - "

Just then there was another knock on the door and Sofia went white.

"I knew it," Cedric said dryly, "It's King Roland and the Queen. I'm finally going to be run out of the kingdom on a rail."

"Cedric, no one's going to run you out of the kingdom on a rail," Sofia insisted. "Shh," she commanded quite royally, then gave him another kiss that was like a promise and dashed out of the closet, pulling the door closed behind her.

"I am definitely already asleep," Sofia announced to the closed door.

"Begging your pardon, miss, but it's me, Violet," said the voice on the other side of the door.

Sofia sighed dramatically. "What can I help you with?" she asked, hoping to push the maid off until the morning. "I'm awfully sleepy - "

"Well miss, Princess Amber told me that there was an awful mess in your closet, and I just came to straighten things up," said Violet.

"You can definitely straighten it up in the morning," Sofia suggested cheerfully. "It'll still be here waiting for you after I go off to school!"

"Miss," began Violet, gently lecturing, "If you leave all your nice dresses on the ground, they'll get wrinkled. That's a lot more work for me, miss. It'll only take a minute. I can have them hung up again in no time."

"I'll pick them up, I'll pick them up," Sofia attempted to reassure the maid, even as she heard the housekeeping key turn in the lock. Frantically she looked behind her, wondering if she could push the wardrobe in front of the door with Clover's help.

But Violet was already in the room and headed to the closet. Sofia scrambled to head her off, but the maid made the closet before the princess, and Sofia was left scuttling in afterward.

Shockingly, the closet was quite empty, apart from the pile of dresses that were still dumped in the corner.

Violet clicked her tongue reprovingly as she went about carefully hanging up the dresses.

"Miss, even if you're in a hurry, you ought to hang up your things," she said kindly. "I know you've gotten good at dressing yourself, but that's no excuse for you to leave your things on the ground. If you like, I can come help you dress again, like I used to."

Sofia was mesmerized, watching the stack of dresses slowly dwindle as Violet hung them back on their respective hangers. At every moment she expected a diminutive sorcerer to be revealed huddled up against the wall, but as Violet drew the last dress away there was no sorcerer to be found.

She was momentarily very perplexed, but at Violet's suggestion, she shook herself out of her confusion.

"Oh no," Sofia said, shaking her head. "I wouldn't dream of it. Besides, I like getting dressed on my own," she said brightly. "It makes me feel independent."

Of course, she never really got dressed on her own, but that was another story.

This seemed to satisfy Violet, and after the maid had put away every last dress, straightened every shoe, and finally turned down the bed, she at last let herself be shoved out the door.

_I'm going to have to have Cedric lock it next time,_ reflected the harried princess. _Maybe with a spell that turns the door to a pillow or something, so no one can knock._

Back in the closet, Sofia turned around in circles several times looking for the disappeared sorcerer. Wherever he had hidden his tiny self, he had hidden himself well. She sighed. Perhaps he had gotten tired of waiting and run off after all.

As she sighed she felt arms come around her waist from behind and looked over her shoulder quite startled to find absolutely nothing there.

Well, something was there.

"_Parea_," he said, and then he was quite visible again.

This time she let out a sigh of relief, turned around in his embrace, threw her arms around his neck, and slumped against him, obliging him to carry her weight.

"Maybe we ought to sleep in your room," she said, quite frazzled.

He pulled the tiara off her head and threw it over his shoulder quite negligently, and then stroked her hair comfortingly.

"And where do you expect me to hide you in there, when someone comes looking for the missing Princess Sofia?" Cedric demanded with quiet amusement. "Wormie is, well, he's not altogether on board with all of," he paused and then waved his arm vaguely, "This. He'd give you away if I tried to stuff you under the desk or something. Besides," he said practically, "Your bed is much more comfortable."

And there was no arguing with that.


	5. Another Man's Treasure 1 of 2

**Sofia the First**

_**Sofia x Cedric**_

_By Gabihime at gmail dot com_

_Another Man's Treasure 1/2_

* * *

**Summary:** Sofia's secret picnic with Cedric is a splendid success. Amber simply doesn't enjoy it because she wasn't invited and spends the entire time hiding in a bush. A story in two parts.

* * *

Contrary to popular belief, intimacy does not generally blossom in shining discrete moments that explode like fireworks against a dark, velvety sky.

Instead it grows little by little, everyday, a long stretch of warm, fluid continuity. It grows with every brush of fingertips and every conspiratorial laugh. It grows whenever she makes some excuse to stand closer to him than is really comfortable, and it grows when that in time becomes his new definition of comfortable. It grows as his hand slipping down her spine when she comes close to him becomes a habit that he has to seriously curb when he suspects they are being observed and it grows as she learns where he'll be and when he'll be, and their schedules begin to coincidentally coincide.

It is and was something to be constantly discovered, constantly experienced.

Sofia breathed it in like oxygen, this secret concatenation of their lives: one day after the next established a very regular sort of bliss that felt anything but ordinary. It was the best game of hide-and-go-seek she had ever played: thrilling, hilarious, charming, and very private.

And of course, in addition to the gradual shifting that happened everyday, in every moment, with every casual touch and look and word, there were also other times that were not so smooth and silent and continuous. These were _momenti allegro_, the times when things seemed to happen both impossibly quickly and impossibly slowly, like the first time he ran his thumb along the outside of her thigh, under her skirt, or the first time she asked very innocently, 'help me out of my dress.'

In the time since his last defenses had collapsed so pathetically, Cedric had gotten very familiar with petticoats, crinolines, panniers, stays, garters, straps, belts, buckles, hooks and eyes, pins, laces, and buttons. He had learned what he needed to keep a firm grip on, what needed only a tug, what had to be treated delicately, and what could be tossed very carelessly across the room. He had also developed very singular _preferences_. He had personal opinions on all of the dresses in Sofia's closet based on how they looked, how they fit her, how they felt against the skin, and exactly how difficult they were to get on and off of the lavender princesa. This last metric was not so much based on his carnal interest in the princess (which was admittedly considerable) but rather on the fact that he was the one who helped her into all her fripperies and fineries. Naturally he had developed a distaste for all the particularly troublesome dresses, unless he felt that they were worth the effort.

Privately Sofia thought that her sister would be positively flabbergasted to discover the breadth of Cedric's knowledge of ladies' fashions, and his very definite opinions on everything from slippers to undergarments. Amber was always desperate to discuss frills with Sofia, and the younger princess longed for the opportunity to introduce the one's obsession to the other's growing knowledge because she was confident that they would end up better friends because of it, even if they would not agree about farthingales.

Of course, she couldn't introduce the subject into polite conversation because of the way the sorcerer came by his knowledge. She was simply not creative enough to invent another _believable _reason as to why Cedric might have gained a sudden inexplicable knowledge of necklines and hemlines. Sofia found the fact that they had no opportunity to discuss this rare mutual interest to be decidedly unfortunate. She wanted very much for Amber to like Cedric and for Cedric to like Amber. At the moment they merely tolerated one another, and this only because Cedric was royal sorcerer and Amber was a royal princess and so the two had to be civil to one another at the very least.

Sofia was not altogether hopeful that the two of them would become fast friends if left to their own devices. In the nine years Sofia had lived in Enchancia Castle she had known Amber to speak to Cedric of her own choosing only a handful of times, and always when she wanted something.

Of course, Amber often wanted something. Sofia didn't hold that against her, as she wanted quite a lot of things herself. However, Sofia suspected that what she wanted was quite a bit different than what her sister wanted. That was perfectly all right in her book. It meant Sofia did not have to fight Amber for what she was intent on having. Fight the First Princess would - of this Sofia had no doubts - although she would certainly fight like a lady: very elegantly, but with a keen, and indeed perhaps _manic_, determination to win. But Amber would only fight if she thought that there was a prize worth having. Sofia was accustomed to her sister's idiosyncrasies. They were familiar, and could be counted upon. For Amber, all that glittered was worth having, gold or not. Sofia's ideas of riches and treasures were somewhat different, and had been considerably shaped by her experiences over the last several months.

Fortunately, Sofia did not believe she would ever have to fight with Amber for Cedric's attention, even if the sorcerer discovered the secret of transmuting lead into gold and used this newfound knowledge to decorate the castle with life size statuettes of the First Princess of Enchancia.

But Amber's casual disdain for Sofia's one-and-only was a problem in and of itself. Although Sofia did not want to have to chase Amber off of Cedric with a royal lacrosse stick, she did hope that someday in the future the sorcerer and the First Princess might be something vaguely like friends. It would make all things very much easier.

Whether for good or for ill, this was a problem for another evening, one of dozens and dozens that Sofia had piled up in a basket marked 'regarding Cedric.' She would solve them one at a time, as she figured them out. She had solved dozens and dozens already, although a new complication always seemed to draw her attention the moment the previous one was put to bed solved. Being a grown lady of seventeen was sometimes very much _no fun_, which was why she relished every evening. Once the clock had chimed nine, Cedric himself came to call.

He almost always appeared silently. She would look up and he would be there, leaning against the wall, his arms folded, or sitting in a chair by the vanity, watching her. She _knew _that he came cloaked in an invisibility spell and waited for her to turn her head to drop it, just for the effect. It was a thing she had learned, courting a sorcerer: they were often _very _theatrical. And so she let him do as he liked, and she played along. It did always make her heart skip to see him standing there because she could never be absolutely certain when she would turn and see him. It made her feel that he was always there, just out of sight, waiting until the appropriate moment. It made him feel much closer than he often was, and this was a great comfort to her.

Whenever things seemed to impossibly difficult it was always in his arms that she wanted to hide, being comforted until she felt strong enough to face the world again. Often, her wagon full of borrowed troubles overwhelmed her, but then he would shake his head ruefully, as if he could do nothing with her, and put his hands on her shoulders, and this inevitably gave her the courage to struggle forward.

Even on warm, sunshiny days, he was the one she wanted to share her happiness with, laughing about what she had done and seen.

She would go to him wherever he had appeared and drown him in the tidings of her day until he cut her off by kissing her. After this first kiss of the evening, sometimes short and sweet but often long and a little hungry, he was content to listen to her talk about whatever she liked for as long as she liked. He often brought his troubles to her, and they both stirred through them thoughtfully, hunting for solutions. She commonly thought of possibilities that he hadn't considered, and he was grateful for her quick mind and her thoughtful heart.

Only sometimes she was _too thoughtful_.

It seemed to him that she dragged all the problems of the Kingdom of Enchancia right into her bedroom for the two of them to consider. If something was wrong in the kingdom, Sofia thought it was her solemn duty to right it, no matter what it was. Years of experience had taught him that there was not dissuading her from counting her troubles by the bushel. The rest of the royal family seemed generally unconcerned with the state of affairs in the nation. Roland and Miranda were in the ninth glorious year of their honeymoon, the crown prince was good at nothing besides dickering about with machines and otherwise pleasing himself, and the First Princess was primarily devoted to admiring herself, and then perhaps admiring that she admired herself. They were all benignly self-centered, as royal people often were, but the Second Princess was different. If a grocer in the town below the castle had a toothache, then Sofia knew about it and was devising a course of treatment. Likewise, if an evil enchantress had a plan to overthrow the king, Sofia knew about it and was ready to face her head on, with or without her own sorcerer's consent. As far as Cedric could tell, things in the kingdom had run smoothly for so long because Sofia was constantly running from one place to the next, throwing tea parties, rallying her forest minions, fighting off invaders, putting out fires, singing buttercup scout songs, and befriending absolutely every individual in the Tri-Kingdom area.

His princess was a busybody. Even watching her was physically exhausting.

It was incredibly, obnoxiously, atrociously _annoying_ that she cared so much when others seemed to care so little, but it was also one of the reasons that he loved her, and so he generally said nothing about it.

Sofia appreciated his slow, thoughtful support, like a hand on her shoulder.

Even if he could offer her no easy solutions to her problems, he had a way of comforting her without resorting to pie crust promises. He never said 'everything will be fine.' Instead, he said, 'I'm still here, and I will be here, regardless. It isn't much, but it's what I can offer.' He said, 'I don't mind that I often have to walk behind you. Remember what that means: that I am always at your back.' He said, 'If it is possible, then I am certain that you will do it even if no one else can. That is your special magic.' He said, 'Take my hand. I will go where you take me.'

When they were alone, he said her name like it was a promise to himself. It was much nicer than being called 'princess,' she thought, although he did that too, turning the title into a wry little pet name, as if she were still a wishing well cat and not a member of the ruling house of the kingdom. 'Princess, come get a saucer of milk.' 'Princess, I am _trying_ to work.' 'All right Princess, you can sit in my lap. You _are_ spoiled, but I suppose you'll do what you like anyway, so I may as well let you.' And then sometimes he said it as an admonishment, sharp and crisp, '_Princess_,' as if she were an errant puppy who had piddled on the rug.

He said it the way no one else said it and she listened when he called.

One evening, as the day wound quietly closed, Sofia asked a very serious question.

"Would you mind terribly if some day I just wanted to run off?" she asked with hesitation, "I mean, run away from everything. Stop being a princess. Stop doing all the things a princess does. Leave behind all the frilly dresses and tiaras and the recognition and responsibility and just _do something else_."

Cedric chuckled briefly at that, "Well, I do think the king would definitely put a price on my head if I just _absconded _with his youngest daughter, no matter what sort of jolly farewell letter you left behind. And my parents would probably _not _approve," he advised wryly. "It's very disgraceful for a royal sorcerer to elope with a princess, you know." But then he waved the idea off dismissively, saying, "But of course I don't care whether or not you're in one of those impossible gowns or covered in seed pearls. I didn't fall in love with you because you were a princess," he said dryly, then shook his head as he looked at her thoughtfully. "Or perhaps I did, because you were a princess long before anyone bothered to screw a tiara onto your head or hang this amulet around your neck like a bell," he let his thumb run under the chain of the Amulet of Avalor and flipped it sideways against her skin.

It shone in the warm light of the bedside lamp as he looked at her very steadily, and she seemed very strange, like a page from a very old book.

"I think you were born a princess, Sofia, as much as I was born a sorcerer," he said seriously. "It's your prime self, your basic element. You couldn't leave off being a princess if you tried," he said levelly. "Even if you tried very hard, I think. If you stopped being called 'Princess Sofia,' you'd still be a princess, because a princess is who 'Sofia' is."

Sofia flushed rosily and looked down at her hands.

But then Cedric laughed and flippantly tapped her on the top of her head with his wand. "That wasn't exactly a compliment, your troublesome highness," he said with a quirk of his mouth. "I have no particular fondness for princesses," he reminded her. "Honestly, I find them to generally be _absolutely dreadful_. They're tiresome, self-centered, inconsiderate wretches," he announced as if delivering his professional opinion on the subject. "It took you to make me reconsider the species as a whole. I am afraid to say that I find you, as an _individual _princess, to be very satisfactory," he said seriously.

"Why are you afraid to say it?" she asked curiously, tilting her head to the side.

"Because I sincerely doubt that developing a taste for princesses will do much for my longevity," he said, leaning back against the overstuffed pillows of her very royal bed.

"Oh Cedric," Sofia laughed, as unworried as ever. "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," she assured him. "I've told you that a hundred times."

"And we've crossed that bridge about as many times as you've told me not to worry about it. We are _constantly _crossing that bridge. I am no fortune teller, but I suspect, I _predict _even, that we will cross it again tonight," he reminded her with a raised eyebrow. "It remains yet to be seen what other people will think of this development once it comes to light. It could be very, very ugly. People love you," he said almost helplessly, as if completely caught in her spell. Sofia could be very intoxicating. Then he shook his head briefly, clearing it, "And no one is particularly fond of me besides you and my mother. They will not like it," he said, making another dire prediction.

"It will be all right," she tried to assure him. "If they love me, then they'll be happy for me," she said with certainty. "There may be a few bumps, and I doubt it will be _simple_, but everything will turn out right, you'll see. I have it on good authority," she said with a deliberate nod, and then folded her hands against her chest. "Plus it's what my heart tells me."

"I'm glad one of us is an optimist," Cedric said with a half-hearted shrug.

"Where would we be if I wasn't?" she asked leaning forward expectantly.

"Some place I'd rather not consider," he admitted, tweaking her nose. "You certainly weren't part of the life story I wrote for myself when I was ten years old."

"What was in that story?" Sofia asked with a smile she did her best to hide behind her hand.

"Oh, a great deal of success and grandeur, and perhaps a little bit of world domination," he said, folding his hands behind his head.

Sofia laughed and shook her head. "We'll get there," she assured him.

He made as if to nod comfortably and then all of the sudden he sat up as if he had been jolted by an electric shock and leaned forward, scrutinizing her very closely. Her heart sped up at this very deliberate examination of all her pertinent features.

"You are the real Sofia aren't you?" he demanded. "You're not _the other one_?" The way he said the words 'the other one' sent a chill down her spine. It was as if he was reluctantly intoning the forbidden name of a banished demon. Since his unexpected brush with her a few months previous, he had developed a pathological fear of encountering the _other _Sofia, the _worst _Sofia, unexpectedly.

"I'm the real Sofia," she insisted, putting her own hands over his and giving them a comforting squeeze. "And I meant the success and grandeur part, not so much the world domination."

"Oh," he said, visibly relieved. "That's quite all right then," he said, leaning back against the pillows.

Sofia flopped down on the pillows next to him and lightly tapped him on the chest with agile fingers.

He knew this pose, those pattering fingers. She had something in mind.

"Are you busy tomorrow?" she asked, squirming slightly in place with her barely contained enthusiasm.

"Not particularly," he said warily, "Although I know that _you _are. Tomorrow is a school day," he pointed out.

"I'm playing hooky!" she announced with pleasure, and when she saw his immediate look of disapproval she laughed and shook her head. "Not really," she admitted. "I've been given special permission to spend the day doing nature illustrations in the royal preserve," she explained. "I'm supposed to illustrate plants and animals and fungi and whatever else I find, I suppose. I was wondering," she began in a curious, sing-song voice, "If you would be interested in coming with me."

Cedric raised a cautious eyebrow and said, "As delightful as watching you drawing mushrooms for hours and hours sounds, I think I may have other obligations - "

At this Sofia laughed like he was the punchline in her favorite joke and scrambled off to the side of the bed. She produced her sketchbook and began exhibiting very precise drawings one after another.

"Don't think I didn't think about this," she said with a smug giggle. "I've already done twenty seven accurate illustrations that I intend to turn in day after tomorrow as proof that I am a very dedicated student."

"You _have _been busy," Cedric said with honest admiration.

Sofia folded her arms comfortably across her chest and looked very self-satisfied. "That means I have tomorrow absolutely free, and a very good excuse to be out of the castle and wandering around in the royal preserve, all alone. Well," she paused for dramatic effect. "All alone except for _you_. I hope, at least." She gave him an eager, hopeful smile then hastened to explain. "I thought that maybe you might make up some sort of reason to be out of the castle too, and then you could meet me at Juneberry Island for a picnic. If we go there separately, then no one will suspect anything, and we'll have plenty of peace and quiet to do whatever we like. Juneberry Island is really nice this time of year, and I made sure that the royal preserve would be totally cleared of personnel for tomorrow," she added nervously, a little out of breath after her enthusiastic pitch. "I didn't want anyone to scare the wildlife away."

"You seem to have thought of everything," Cedric remarked with dry amusement. "You really are a positive genius at putting these things together, aren't you? You haven't missed a detail."

"Well, I'm still missing you," she said hesitatingly, tilting her head to the side. "And the picnic lunch," she admitted. "I couldn't think of any reason to request enough food for the two of us without raising eyebrows," she confessed.

"Princess, you have chosen to entangle yourself with a sorcerer," he said with a touch of pride in his voice. "I can conjure whatever sort of picnic lunch you set your heart upon."

"So we can go?" Sofia asked excitedly, leaning forward as she tugged on his shirtfront. "We can really go on a picnic together?"

He raised a hand and let it come to rest affectionately on her head, stroking her hair, which was at the moment pleasingly tiara-free. It was very difficult to pet her when she wore the blasted things. "Of course we can," he said with reassuring certainty. "We'll go on a dozen picnics if you can arrange the time for them," he glanced sidelong at the door to her bedroom, "And we can secure the necessary privacy."

"Oh, thank you Cedric," Sofia said happily, throwing her arms around his neck with little concern for the fact that she might send them both tumbling off the bed. He managed to catch her and and himself and secured their position on the bed only by grabbing onto the headboard and pulling her down on top of him.

It was yet another regular evening with Sofia.

"You are very sweet," she told him, nestling her ear against his chest so that she could listen to his heartbeat.

"You are certainly the only person who thinks so," he commented dryly, idly rubbing her back.

"But I want other people to think so," she said slowly, "Because I want other people to love you."

He snorted at that.

"_Princess_," he said, as if he were calling a cat, "I am afraid that that may be a dream too impossible for even you to manage."

"If anyone can do it," she began hopefully, snuggling against him.

"If anyone can do it," he repeated quietly.


	6. Another Man's Treasure 2 of 2

**_Sofia the First_**

_Sofia x Cedric_

By Gabihime at gmail dot com

_Another Man's Treasure_ 2/2

* * *

The day Sofia had chosen for their picnic couldn't have been nicer. The sun was high and bright, the sky was very blue, and there was a wonderful breeze. The birds were singing and all was right between heaven and earth.

Sofia made the landing at Juneberry Island easily, having left her flying horse at one of the river's docks so she could approach the little island by boat. She sang as she made her way through the trees, and the birds followed her, warbling out a woodland harmony.

She and Cedric had agreed to meet at a particular place near a very old oak tree. She hoped he wouldn't be very long in getting to the picnic, despite the fact that he disliked horses _and_ flying. Sofia had pulled several promises in the stables to arrange for the sorcerer's transportation.

But she really needn't have worried. She came around the promised tree to find Cedric leaning idly against it, a book open on his lap. There was a picnic blanket spread out in front of him.

"Well now, _princess_," he said, lingering playfully over her title as he affected mild amazement. "This _is _a surprise. Who would have imagined that we'd run into each other out here, of all places."

"I know," Sofia agreed with a laugh, unslinging her pack. "It's a remarkable coincidence." She paused. "You know, since we are out here together - "

"By coincidence," Cedric reminded her, raising one finger as he closed one eye conspiratorially.

"By coincidence," Sofia repeated with a nod, "It seems like we may as well spend the day enjoying the scenery together."

"Oh, I certainly plan on enjoying the _scenery_," Cedric answered with a snort, then he shrugged. "After all, I did ride all the way out here _on a horse._ You know that equines don't agree with me, the same way that _being in the sky _doesn't agree with me. I'm probably going to be sore for days."

"I promise I'll make it up to you," Sofia said with a smile so warm and genuine that the flowers might have turned to look at her had the sun not been high in the sky already. Cedric basked in her glow and decided at once that all the trouble of riding out to the royal preserve had been worth it. Being afforded the chance to make Sofa smile like she was smiling now, free and rich and so obviously delighted, was a precious treasure, even if it was not a rare one. He would never get tired of seeing her light up, no matter how often she smiled at him.

She offered him her hand, and he took it, and she helped him to his feet.

Once he was on his feet she turned to look at the bright little glade around them.

"We have the whole day together," she said. "They won't expect me back until after dinnertime. What would you like to do?"

He came up beside her and took her hand. "There is one _particular_ thing that I'm rather keen on beginning with," he said, giving her a slight bow and drawing her hand to his lips, the absolute picture of courtly poise.

Sofia flushed and tried to think of what she might say in response to such a suave proposition, so unexpected from Cedric, who was usually anything but courtly. But then she caught the sound of a conjuration behind Cedric's back and she laughed out loud as be presented her with a pair of badminton racquets as if they were a bouquet.

"Badminton!" she laughed, dancing in place. "You want to play Blazing Badminton! Cedric, I didn't even know you liked badminton - "

"I can't say I'm a diehard fan. Well, I could, but I'd be lying," Cedric agreed with a shrug as he gave over one of the racquets. "But you - let's just say that it has not escaped my attention that you just _love_ outdoor sports. It's something we never get to do together at the castle, because I suppose it would look outrageously suspicious if I suddenly became interested in playing lawn games, particularly as I would be interested in playing them with you _exclusively_." He shrugged out of his robe and left it neatly folded on the corner of the picnic blanket.

"Someday we'll play together on the palace lawn," she promised with another smile that lit up the glade around them. "It was really nice of you to think of something like this, Cedric. You're right, I do love to play games."

"And to win games," he chortled. "But don't bet on that this time, princess," he said, tossing the conjured birdie up and catching it.

"Well, I have to say, I'm going to be really surprised if you beat me," she baited teasingly as he served the birdie. She batted it back at him like returning an ace, and the birdie sizzled as its tail lit up like a comet.

Sofia didn't think Cedric had any chance at all of returning her shot, but then almost faster than her eyes could follow, he had drawn his wand and cast a freezing spell on the birdie, slowing it down and allowing him to return it somewhat heavily.

"I used to play this game with my sister all the time," he said smugly. "Don't forget, princess," he drawled. "_I_ am a sorcerer."

"You didn't say you were going to use magic!" Sofia protested, moving to return the birdie again.

"I didn't say I _wasn't_ going to use magic," Cedric pointed out blandly.

Sofia returned with another surefire ace, and again he froze it. This time when he returned it, she astonished him by pulling a wand out of some interior pocket on her dress and thawing the birdie before it hit her racquet, then sending it back with all the force she had. This time she did successfully ace him.

"A Buttercup Scout is always prepared," she announced prettily, tossing her head so that her curls bounced.

Cedric laughed at that, shaking a finger at her before leaning down to pick up the birdie.

"Don't think that'll work on me a second time, Sofia," he warned.

They played for some time, batting the birdie back and forth, throwing spells at it, and sometimes even at one another. All was fair in love and badminton. Quite soon they gave up on keeping score, since the spells flying between them sometimes crossed and therefore produced unexpected results. It was difficult to know who to count the point for when the birdie grew feet and ran off into the bushes and had to be hunted. In the end they were breathless and pleased, and when they finally met to shake hands after she called the game over, he tweaked her nose.

"I have no idea where you get all that energy from," Cedric said. "Honestly, even watching you makes me dizzy sometimes."

"I always eat a good breakfast," Sofia said with a quirk of her mouth. "Speaking of, what's for lunch?" she asked. "I have some sandwiches and fruit, but I'm afraid it's not very much."

"Well," he said, waving his wand nonchalantly, "I thought we'd start with fried chicken, potato salad, and ice cream. Then we can have jiggly wiggly pudding, or roast suckling pig, or whatever else you want."

Sofia clapped her hands in delight. "That sounds wonderful," she congratulated. "How did you know to suggest fried chicken? I really think it's one of the things that just _makes _a picnic."

"Princess, I have been a guest at no few picnics where you have reigned supreme," he drawled out with a satisfied shrug. "It has not escaped my attention that you eat no small amount of fried chicken _every time _it is available."

As he spoke, he turned his wand around in a circle, and the pale blue of his conjuration magic cleared to reveal a basket of chicken in his hands. He gave the basket to the princess who clapped her hands.

"Trust you to know a thing like that, Cedric," Sofia said with a laugh.

"As your intended, I _ought_ to know a thing like that," he said with mild superiority.

They sat down on the picnic blanket and Sofia unpacked the lunch that she'd brought. Along with the food that Cedric conjured, dish by dish, it was more than enough for quite a party.

After she was quite full, Sofia lay back on the blanket and looked up at the sky.

"I'm so happy," she confessed. "That we could be together, here, in this beautiful place, on this beautiful day."

"I'm happy too," Cedric admitted. "Happy that I got to watch a beautiful princess fill up her beautiful stomach with beautiful fried chicken."

Sofia laughed and then sat up, cocking her head to the side. Cedric had just finished tidying up the remains of their lunch.

"What would you like to do now?" she asked. "The sun is so warm, it might be nice to take a nap."

He tapped lightly at the book that lay on the blanket by his knees.

"Nap for a while, princess," he suggested. "And let all that fried chicken digest. I'd be happy to sit next to you and read."

"Are you sure?" she asked, momentarily worried. "I mean, we're supposed to be having fun - "

"A lazy holiday is the best kind of holiday," he interjected. "Take a nap."

With this firm reassurance, Sofia sidled up to him and promptly went to sleep. He conjured a sun hat and laid it gently over her face.

He was just as content to spend time with Sofia-at-rest as with Sofia-Non-Stop.

That was to be expected. She was his princess, after all.

* * *

She napped for perhaps an hour, then popped up, as bright as a spring daisy. He closed his book then and consented to a walk around the island.

The wildlife of Juneberry Island greeted Sofia like an old friend, and she was a gracious visitor who made it clear that he was her honored guest. It wasn't as if Cedric was particularly fond of wild animals, but he was fond of Sofia, and so he had learned not to shriek when Sofia calmly chatted with snakes, bears, and alligators. Fortunately, the most threatening wildlife of Juneberry Island seemed to be river otters, who were not actually very threatening at all.

Walking with Sofia on his arm through the warm, golden afternoon as she introduced him to squirrels and otters was strange and wonderful, and he felt very fortunate that she was willing to share this part of herself with him. It was something that no other human really understood: her rich, personal magic.

The Amulet of Avalor gleamed like a star around her neck, but he was certain. Amulet or no amulet, Sofia had been born a princess.

It was a beautiful truth, but it was also a frightening one.

It was something that sometimes was very difficult for him. In his ordinary life it had long been an inviolable truth that the royals of Enchancia (and other nations, naturally) occupied a position above his. As a child he had not been a bosom friend of either the young prince or his boisterous sister even though he had grown up on the palace grounds. It wasn't as if they'd really been unkind to him. The torment Cedric had faced as a boy had primarily come at school, and then at home because he had never performed adequately enough to please his father. And that was just it, as clear as anything. The prince and princess had never been his peers. They had never been his friends or schoolmates. They had their own royal social set. They had their own royal school. They had their own peers, and he had never been among them.

When she had been a little girl, Cedric had managed to hold onto a little dignity in her presence simply because he was an adult and she was a child. Although she was a royal child and he was bound to obey her commands, provided they weren't too outlandish, she had still been a child and therefore a bit in awe of him simply because he had hit the magic number before her and was a bona fide grown-up.

If they had met as children, when he had been short, skinny, awkward, and so unsure of his magic that he was constantly accidentally turning himself into a chicken, or a teapot, or a bicycle tire - would Sofia have looked at him with anything other than kindness and pity? It was a difficult problem. Even greater than the difference in their rank was the difference in their temperaments. If he had been charismatic, powerful, well-respected, and appropriately ominous as court sorcerer, then it might not have eaten at him the way it did. A brilliant sorcerer might have made an appropriately romantic match for the kingdom's favorite princess.

But he was not a brilliant sorcerer, no matter what Sofia said to the contrary. Even now he could not be completely confident that a moment of panic or an untimely sneeze would not undo the greatest of his spells, or otherwise backfire and leave him as a chicken, teapot, or bicycle tire. His self-confidence was generally weak and his self-doubt and fear were generally great. As an adult, he knew that he remained short, skinny, and awkward, given to being envious rather than charitable and mildly villainous rather than generous, heroic, or gallant. Sofia was always granting him the courage to try being bigger than he truly was, but he understood the truth and the truth was painful.

He was such a sorry, embarrassing adult that a girl child had been his match before she was even ten years old. He wasn't shamed by Sofia's love. He couldn't be. That was absurd. It was the greatest treasure he had ever known. It was the greatest treasure he was likely to know. He loved her.

But he knew that he was not her equal, and he doubted that he ever could be.

This truth made those other, ordinary elements of his life harder than they might have been otherwise, even accounting for his clandestine relationship with a princess who had not yet reached her majority. He could not be seen with her. He could not walk with her on his arm. He could not sit with her at dinner. He could not even play badminton with her. At those glittering balls where the youth of the Tri-Kingdom area bloomed like strange, lovely flowers, he could not ask her to dance.

It hurt.

It hurt terribly.

That's why he had to find succor at times like these, times when the universe consisted of only the two of them and they could ignore or rewrite the laws of reality as they saw fit. He wanted to believe that it was _for_ _her_ as much as it was for him, even accounting for his own selfishness. He wanted to give her something that he couldn't, otherwise.

"Princess - " he began slowly, uncertain, an embarrassing flush rising in his cheeks.

"Yes?" she asked curiously.

"I'd like to, that is, it would be, it would be - " he struggled mightily, fighting his fear that she found him ridiculous, that she found him absurd, even when he was trying -

"Cedric, what is it?" Sofia asked in concern, raising a hand to lightly brush the hair off his forehead. He was obviously in distress. They had finally come back around to the picnic blanket after their circuit of the island, and she was about to suggest that he sit down. She bit her lip, worried.

He would not look at her.

"We never - " he paused awkwardly, "That is, _I_ never, what I mean is, I'm not really ever in a position to ask you to dance." The tips of his ears were bright red and he was looking stalwartly at the ground. "I'm certainly not a very accomplished dancer myself. I'm sure to step all over your feet. I used to get dreadful grades in dancing class, and I'm sure it'll be more trouble than it's worth to you, but," he swallowed hard, "But," and then he bowed nervously and extended his hand toward her, "Princess, it would be my honor to dance with you."

Sofia, caught totally off guard by this shy request, had drawn her hands to her chest during his confession, her own heart beating rapidly. When he offered his hand to her, she took it, and then her feelings overwhelmed her and she dashed forward the two steps that separated them and threw her arms around him, burying her face in his shoulder. Although surprised by her response, Cedric had enough experience with Sofia to expect the unexpected, and caught her and his balance before they both went tumbling over. Slightly confused by her embrace, he folded her up in his arms because that seemed like the right thing to do.

"Oh Cedric, I do love you," she said into his shoulder. "More and more everyday, I think. So much that my heart might burst if I didn't let a little of it out now and then. I love you more than the blue sky and the beautiful round moon," she said thoughtfully, then she giggled as her feelings overcame her again, "Even more than cloudberry pancakes. No matter who I dance with, you know that you're the only person I want to hold me, right?"

Cedric coughed and then squeezed her quite hard before replying quietly, "Yes, I know." He seemed to be struggling for words. "I am grateful for that, Sofia. I hope you understand what I mean."

"Of course I do," she answered with a warm laugh. "But you really don't have to be _grateful_, Cedric. You're just being silly. When I gave you my heart, I gave you the rest," she reminded, giving him a squeeze back. "Dancing is just to have a good time, or when I _have_ to because I'm a princess, but you're my only _real_ partner, you know? In dancing or in anything else. You're my Cedric, and I'm very happy to be your Sofia. There's nothing to be grateful for," she pointed out.

"And yet I'm grateful," he said very seriously, "Nonetheless."

She broke the serious mood by pulling out of his arms and turning in place as she did a little jig.

"You know, more than dancing at a fancy ball, what I really want to do is go out to a festival with you, maybe to see the Grass Slippers," she said, humming a few bars of a favorite song. "It is really sad that you've never been to the Hootenanny before, Cedric," Sofia lamented. "It's a whole lot of fun, and I'm sure you'd look great in plaid."

Cedric raised an eyebrow. "I'm _not_ so sure, princess," he said.

"Well, _I'm_ sure," she insisted, then tapped a fingertip against her lip. "As only one couple we obviously don't have enough for a country dance, but I can still teach you the steps. We'll just dance as a pair. I'm sure you'll like it," she said. "And then maybe next year you can shock everybody by debuting at the festival as an accomplished step dancer," she giggled, then leaned forward winsomely. "You know, in a country dance, everybody dances with everybody, because partners are traded as you go, so you really could dance with me in front of _everyone_ without letting the secret out."

That idea left Cedric both hot and cold. It was an enticing idea and also a terrifying one. He enjoyed indulging in Sofia's benign conspiracies and it did give him a thrill whenever they managed to be together under the eye of royal authority without arousing suspicion, even if it also gave him heart palpitations. It was a shared secret that was sweet like honey and as addictive as any controlled substance. He was aware that he sometimes made very poor decisions when he was acting under the influence of Sofia.

He was not sure whether he was ready to don a kilt and pop up and down like a broken jack-in-the-box in front of the country at large.

But for Sofia, he would at least entertain the possibility.

"We'll see when the time comes," he said diplomatically. "Until then, I humbly request that you teach me the steps," he said, bowing again deeply.

She giggled again, and was apparently delighted.

He hadn't expected her to be troubled by the fact that they had no dance band, and she wasn't. She simply wandered around the clearing a bit calling for songbirds, and had soon assembled enough to provide appropriate accompaniment for dance lessons. Such things happened so frequently while he was in the company of Sofia that he no longer thought them a remarkable occurrence. She had even found a woodpecker to keep time.

"I've promised them something delicious," she confided, then took up her position beside him. "Now," she said, clapping her hands. "The first thing I'm going to teach you is the pas de basque."

Their dancing lesson went on for some time, with Sofia showing him steps, and then breaking them down into simple movements that they practiced together in time to the music of birds and the rhythm of a woodpecker. She was kind and gentle and lively, and he soon lost his fear of embarrassing himself in front of her because she was an easy task master and she was obviously enjoying herself. He didn't care how silly he looked or how bad his dancing was. She was happy, and that made him happy.

And she was right. It was very silly, but as he practiced hopping from foot to foot, he got to understand the idea that the dance itself was probably objectively _fun_.

It was the first time he'd thought of such a thing as fun in years and years and years, since the time he had been a very little boy and dancing had simply meant jumping and laughing to music with no particular rhyme or reason.

"You know," she confided, as they slowed for a break, both breathing hard from hopping and stepping, "When I first came to the castle, I was really terrified of dancing," she said with a laugh. "That's probably not it. It seemed like I was afraid of dancing, but what I was really afraid of was betraying everybody's expectations and being rejected and abandoned. I think that's a thing that everybody's afraid of sometimes. In the end, I did the best that I could and that was good enough."

"I remember that," Cedric said, rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment. "I was," he coughed and then rubbed at his nose before admitting, "Less than helpful."

Sofia laughed again. "Oh no," she denied. "I think you were actually super helpful. If you hadn't tried to help me out, then I might not have had the chance to make up with Amber, or meet Cinderella and learn what's really important when it comes to family, friendships, and dancing: what's in your heart."

"You know, princess," he continued, shamefaced, "That I didn't intend to help you - "

"Well, you helped me whether you meant to or not," she said with a sweet smile, reaching up to pat his head. "And that first lesson I learned, it was about forgiveness, and having a loving heart. You've always been there for me, Cedric, even if you didn't understand it at the time."

He covered his mouth with his hand and turned away from her briefly, because Sofia at that moment was so brilliant and lovely that he had difficulty looking at her. When he turned back to her, he raised a hand to brush her cheek and said what he felt as honestly as he could.

"You're very kind to me. I love you because it's impossible not to."

It was Sofia's turn to blush, covering her cheeks with her cool fingertips. After a moment she seemed to double over and squeal with her barely contained elation, hopping rapidly in place. He thought he might be in danger of being tackled again, but after she bounced around in absolute mad delight for a couple of minutes she seemed to get control of herself again and captured his hand with her own.

"Come on," she said, beaming. "Let's dance."

* * *

After they had quite exhausted themselves with dancing and laughing and Sofia's infectious joy, they were both content to drop onto the picnic blanket. Sofia flopped over bonelessly, kicking off her shoes and wriggling in place as she stretched her legs.

He was a bit more sedate, and ended up lounging against the tree, much as he had been when she had first come upon him.

After a moment, she tugged on his ankle. She was lying near his feet.

"Cedric," Sofia complained, threatening a pout. "Come down here. I want to be _held_."

He let out a mildly exasperated sigh.

"Don't be so spoiled," he said. "If you want to be held, come up here. This is my holiday too, _princess_."

"So I'm invited?" she asked mildly, rolling back and forth in place. "You're inviting me?"

"You have a standing invitation," he reminded her. "If you want to be petted, come here and I'll pet you."

Sofia came as called, on all fours like a cat, and then threw herself with abandon right into his lap and lay there like a dead thing. This was not a particularly uncommon occurrence, so Cedric patiently pulled the pins that held her tiara on out of her hair and then sat that emblem of her royal rank to the side. Then he languidly began petting her head.

She relaxed and let out a musical trill of contentment.

"You know, I think this might possibly be the best day that I have ever had," she said, snuggling into his lap.

"You always say that," he reminded her. "Anyway, don't be so frisky, you little vixen. If you want to keep being petted, mind your manners and be careful what you press against."

"Really?" Sofia asked in a singsong voice. "Really really?" This time when she snuggled him, she was clearly snuggling with _intent_.

"You saucy little nymph," he complained with a laugh as he brought his hand down firmly on her royal rear end, giving her a resounding spank. "Forget being the second princess. You're the first princess of indiscreet behavior. You're so horribly naughty that you ought to go to reform school ten times."

"But you're not going to report my naughtiness," she suggested, up on her hands and knees again and grinning like a Cheshire cat.

"Well, I'm not _stupid_," he answered with his own laconic, half-lidded smile.

This made her collapse into giggles again, and she launched herself at him.

This time he was ready to be tackled, and let her bowl him over onto the blanket. When she was in a mood like this, Sofia was extremely silly and predictably unpredictable, but it was always fun to play with her.

After bowling him over, Sofia took possession of one of his arms, and he thought she was in the process of curling it around herself, but then he felt her tugging off one of his gloves.

"What are you up to?" he demanded, but she only giggled. She had pinned him effectively, and he could not keep her from claiming one of his gloves.

Unsurprisingly, she went for his remaining glove next, throwing herself across him like a little seal, and he was again unable to resist.

When she drew back, he realized that she had put his gloves on her own hands. They were a little too big for her, but the picture was, well, it was _compelling_.

"My transformation is complete!" Sofia announced in triumph. "I have become Sofia the Sorceress! The sorceress," she threatened, looming over him, "Of _tickles_!"

She then attacked him with no further warning and he was soon shrieking and laughing as he tried to fight her off, because it was a terrible and embarrassing weakness of his that he was extremely ticklish. Having been attacked by Sofia the Sorceress of Tickling in the past, he was aware that the only way to win some respite from her overly friendly hands was to either surrender totally and beg for mercy, or to completely pin her to the ground, which was challenging, considering she was athletic, as wiggly as a fish, and hated to lose.

They tussled around for quite a while until he at last managed to pin her to the blanket. He had had to sacrifice his bowtie to subdue her. She was often unnaturally focused on getting it undone and loose around his neck whenever she got particularly frisky. She didn't seem to care if she was ultimately pinned, so long as she could get his tie undone.

"I win!" she announced triumphantly as he pinned her to the blanket.

"And how do you figure that?" he wanted to know, breathing hard. Subduing her had not been easy. Given all the practice he'd had, he thought he was justified in adding 'princess wrestling and wrangling' to his resume. It was unfortunate that it wasn't really a very marketable skill.

"Because," she said with a sly, superior smile. "Now you're at my mercy."

"Well," he said after a moment, before leaning down to kiss her. "Touché."

* * *

Sofia had seen her sorcerer off with a lingering kiss and was tidying up their picnic spot. She wanted to take nothing but her sketches and leave nothing but her footprints.

She had just finished packing her little bag when she heard some rustling in a nearby bush. Thinking that it might be one of the otters come to see her off, Sofia went up to the bush and brushed the leaves back.

But what tumbled out of the underbrush was not an otter.

It was the first princess of Enchancia.

"Amber!" cried Sofia, startled. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm getting horrible leg cramps," the elder princess complained. "I don't think I could have managed to stay in that bush even one minute longer. Honestly, I'm starting to hate grass and trees and insects - you know, nature _in_ _general_."

"Yes, but why were you in that bush in the first place?" asked Sofia in confusion.

"I followed you, didn't I?!" Amber blurted off testily, crossing her arms over her chest. "I saw you sneaking off this morning with a smile like you'd eaten _several_ canaries and I was concerned. You were clearly up to something suspicious. I expected a _rendezvous_. As your older sister, it's my responsibility to make sure that you don't get into trouble. I'm glad I followed you, although I can't say I'm very happy that I spent hours and hours crouched in a bush, but once I was there - well, given what I saw you understand why I couldn't make my presence _known_. I hope you appreciate what I've sacrificed on your behalf," Amber said loftily. "You clearly need a guiding hand, Sofia."

Sofia sensed that her sister had been more moved by a desire for fresh gossip than by real actual concern for her younger sister's welfare, but she didn't see how pointing this truth out would do much good.

"You saw everything then," Sofia said flatly. "If you've been here since this morning, then you saw everything."

"I certainly did," Amber said indignantly, "Although I obviously wish I hadn't."

Sofia took a deep breath and let it out slowly before asking, "Well?"

"Well what?" Amber asked crossly.

"I'm asking what you think, Amber," Sofia explained gently, biting her lip. "About Cedric," she hesitated, then finally gained the courage to add, "And me."

"I think that if you were going to have a dalliance you could have picked a better person to have it with," Amber huffed. "Someone not so," she made a face as if she'd swallowed a bug, "_Cedric_. It really indicates a dreadful lack of imagination on your part, Sofia." She looked at her stepsister sideways and raised an eyebrow, "And it doesn't say anything particularly positive about your _taste_ either."

"I'm not having a dalliance!" Sofia protested, then admitted, "Well, technically I suppose I am, but that's not all this is. I'm not just fooling around. I'm going to marry Cedric some day!" she announced triumphantly.

"You are not!" Amber responded immediately, stamping her foot as if mortally offended. "Besides, you can't just decide to marry someone without their consent. Does _he _know you're going to marry him? Has he asked?" she demanded. "You're not wearing a ring. _ I_ would have noticed."

Sofia didn't doubt that for a moment. If it was jewelry, Amber had the senses of a bird of prey.

"It's on the table for discussion," Sofia said evasively, putting her hands on her hips. She believed that they had technically already come to an agreement over the prospect of marriage, and that both she and Cedric already considered themselves engaged, but she wasn't so sure Amber would see things the same way, given that he had still not asked her with pomp and circumstance, down on one knee with a ring to bind the proposition. "And yes, he does know. I don't care if I'm not wearing a ring," Sofia said loftily. "It's not the ring that matters, it's the promise."

"Of course it's the ring that matters!" Amber shot back passionately, her face flushed. "Don't be naive, Sofia. If you don't have a ring, then you have nothing. A promise to wed isn't worth very much on its own merits, particularly not a promise from _Cedric_," she said, sticking out her tongue in a way that clearly communicated her disgust. Then she took a deep breath and tried to collect herself, attempting to look dignified, which was somewhat difficult as she still had leaves in her hair. "Besides," she said, "You can't possibly marry the royal sorcerer. You're a princess. It's absurd."

"It isn't absurd," Sofia was quick to answer her sister.

"It is!" Amber cried out again, stamping her foot. "You can't. You're a princess. You have to marry a prince! And don't bring up Aunt Tilly because she doesn't count. We all love Aunt Tilly, but everybody knows that she never does _anything_ she's supposed to do."

"Well then, maybe I want to be a princess like Aunt Tilly, a princess who does things her own way," Sofia said resolutely. "Only I won't do them Aunt Tilly's way. I'll do them Sofia's way."

"Have you thought of what our parents will say? If it gets out that you want to marry the hired help it'll be a huge scandal! What if mother and father disapprove, which they certainly will since neither of them are _completely_ _deranged_ \- what if they won't let you?" demanded Amber.

"I'd like to see them try to stop me," Sofia answered passionately, her eyes blazing. At that moment she was clearly the princess who had fought off wicked dragons, evil fairies, and villainous wizards, who excelled at fencing, magic, and honestly speaking her mind. But then her eyes softened and she said, "But it won't come to that."

"How do you know?" Amber demanded.

"I just know," Sofia insisted. "Besides," she said as she took a deep breath, "There's no rule about it!" She declared triumphantly. This was a fight she was prepared for. She had done her research. "Just look in 'A Thousand and One Tiaras.' There's no rule that an Enchancian princess _has_ to marry a prince, and there's definitely no rule that a princess can't marry a sorcerer if she wants to."

"You looked it up?" Amber asked, aghast. She felt completely betrayed by her most beloved style guide.

"I looked it up," Sofia said with a deliberate nod. "There and in four other princess guides. _And_ I also consulted with Belle, Jasmine, Ariel, Tiana, Rapunzel, Snow White, Cinderella, Merida, Mulan, Pocahontas, Aurora, and even Eilonwy," Sofia said, deliberately counting princesses off on her fingers until she ran out of fingers. "Did you know that Eilonwy married an assistant pig keeper? That makes court sorcerer sound positively aristocratic."

"Oh, what does Eilonwy know?" huffed Amber. "She doesn't even own a tiara."

Sofia rolled her eyes. "Amber, not all princesses wear tiaras," she pointed out. "Vivian basically never wears hers."

But Amber would not be moved. "Proper princesses wear tiaras," she said with a sniff. Then she attempted to appeal to Sofia's sense of logic. "Sofia, princesses marry princes so they can become queens and have castles and palaces of their own. What are you going to have if you marry Cedric? A moldy old tower that doesn't even belong to him?"

"I like the tower!" Sofia protested, her cheeks flushing. "And technically it _does_ belong to him so long as he remains royal sorcerer. That's in the national charter," she said distractedly, then waved Amber off as if it were beside the point. "Anyway, I don't care about becoming queen of some place and having a castle of my own. I used to live in a shoe shop," she pointed out. "I like being a princess," she admitted, "But more than that, I like being Sofia, and marrying Cedric won't change anything about who I am, what I think, and what I can do myself."

Suddenly Amber gasped and covered her mouth with her hands. "I finally get it!" she nearly shrieked. "That's your plan. You're going to stay a princess _forever_. Sofia that's horribly selfish and unfair of you. Don't you know that girls only get to stay princesses until they're around twenty, and then they absolutely _have_ to become queens or maybe duchesses or something. You cannot just _hog_ being a princess for _your_ _whole_ _entire_ _life_."

"What?" Sofia asked in absolute confusion.

But Amber wasn't finished. "You'll marry Cedric, and you'll stay in Enchancia with mother and daddy, and get to be a princess, and keep having princess parties, and have an absolutely huge tiara collection - I'll bet you have a coach pulled by unicorns, and everyone will be extra specially nice to you because they feel absolutely awful that you married that complete nobody of a sorcerer. I'll have to go away when I marry, because I'm definitely going to marry a prince, so you'll be Enchancia's only princess, the _First_ Princess," Amber looked ready to burst into messy mascara tears. "Sofia this is intolerable. I can't believe you'd do this to me."

"I don't want to marry Cedric just to make you unhappy," Sofia said in a mixture of astonishment and exasperation.

"Of course you do!" Amber insisted. "What other reason could you possibly have for marrying him? He isn't handsome, he isn't dashing, he doesn't have a good figure, he looks terrible on a horse, he has no money, no connections, he isn't sweet-tempered, or stylish, or elegant or well-mannered, or even very clever, so far as I can tell. He isn't even a very good sorcerer. He's been an embarrassment to the kingdom for years. There is no reason that you would be interested in marrying him unless it's to make me miserable. Even then your interest is suspicious. In fact, if I had more confidence in his magic, I'd swear he'd put a spell on you!"

"He is not an embarrassment!" Sofia retorted, stamping her own foot. "He's an amazing sorcerer, and he's helped me save the kingdom dozens of times. Even if he hadn't done anything obviously wonderful - and I think he _has_ \- he's still a wonderful person. He makes mistakes, but he's incredibly thoughtful and sweet, and he only ever flubs spells when he's nervous. If you took the time to try and understand him - "

"I'm not interested in understanding him," Amber said imperiously. "Besides, he's old enough to be your father. That might be sort of exciting if it were anybody but Cedric," the golden princess said, sticking out her tongue again in obvious distaste. "It's not even thrilling and romantic, because _nothing_ about Cedric is romantic - "

"I think he's very romantic!" Sofia disagreed, stamping her foot again. "Today he played badminton with me, and then learned to dance the highland fling, and we read together - "

"Sofia, you obviously have _very_ low standards," Amber said dismissively. "None of that is even remotely romantic. Romantic is someone writing heart-wrenching poetry for you, or singing a beautiful ballad underneath your window in the palace gardens, bathed by spring moonlight, or fighting a duel for your honor (and winning, naturally). At the very least it's very large precious gemstone, preferably set into a diadem of some kind. It's not badminton _or_ the highland fling."

"I'm not interested in diadems, duels, or heart-wrenching poetry," Sofia denied. "You're right. None of that sounds like Cedric at all. But Amber," Sofia said soulfully, "None of that matters to me. You see, I don't want what he can't give me. I don't care what he can't do, or what just isn't in his nature. I like him the way he is," she said, shaking her head. "I like all the things that he does, in his own way. Those are the things that mean the most to me. If he sang a song for me, then I'm sure I'd love it, just like I'd love any poem he wrote for me, because he'd have spent the time to think it up and put it down in his own words. But I'd only think those things were romantic if Cedric did them because he wanted to, and I don't really think that that's the way he expresses himself. That's all right with me," Sofia said, covering her heart with her hand. "People are all different, and they show their love in different ways. I love the way that Cedric shows me his heart. Even if he never sings a song for me, or writes a poem, I don't care. I don't want poetry or love songs from anybody else. What Cedric shows to me is very special. It's warm and it's comfortable and it's sweet," she paused weightily before finishing, "And it's _private_."

"Ugh," Amber moaned, throwing her arms into the air. "How can you talk about him that way? Cedric has to be the least eligible bachelor in all of Enchancia. It's like you went and wrote a lot of love letters to Sir Gillium. Cedric's _so old and depressing_."

"Sir Gillium is a very nice person!" Sofia responded passionately. "It's terrible that you'd say something so mean about him, Amber! I hope he meets someone wonderful and gets to be very happy with that person!"

"I hope you're not about to confess to being in love with Sir Gillium too, Sofia, because that would be _beyond_ _the_ _pale_," Amber said with a condescending eye roll.

"I care about Sir Gillium because he's my friend and a great coach and an amazing rider and really wise and smart when it comes to dealing with animals," Sofia answered immediately, ready at any moment to catalogue all the bright spots of any individual of her acquaintance. Then she took a deep breath and let it in slowly before continuing, "I love Cedric, Amber. And it doesn't matter at all how old he is, not to me. I don't care. I love him because I love him. I didn't check how many candles were on his birthday cake before deciding it was okay to love him. I didn't decide _anything_. I just love him. I always have. There's just something about him. It's hard to explain. I suppose it's that he _wants_ loving. He's in need of it. I think he always has been. When I was a little girl, I loved him the way a little girl does, and that was enough for those days. We didn't want anything different because neither of us knew any better, I think. What we had was good, and so we both kept it as carefully as we could. It was a safe place, a safe feeling. But day by day, my feelings grew, the same way that I grew, a little at a time. Nowadays I don't love him like a little girl. I love him like the Sofia I am now. I think loving Cedric is just a part of who I am. I'd shift the world for him, honestly. I'd reorder the universe, if that was necessary. I didn't plan it that way, it's just the way things have turned out," she said with a shrug.

"I'm not listening to you!" Amber announced loudly, sticking her fingers resolutely in her ears. "I am not listening to you describe your weird, creepy relationship with Cedric. I am not listening at all!"

"There's nothing creepy about my relationship with Cedric!" Sofia denied, crossing her arms over her chest. "We're happy together, so what does it matter what anyone else thinks about us? We're in love with one another! That's not creepy, it's wonderful! Do you know how hard it is to find true love, even if you're a princess?" Sofia demanded.

"You are _not_ in true love with Cedric," Amber said dismissively, flicking her hand out. "I would know."

"I am!" Sofia insisted passionately. "Besides, I have a lot more experience with love than you do."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Amber demanded, both incensed and mortified. She hated the implication that she was not superlative in each and every princessly attribute, and both the girls knew that love was perhaps the greatest of all a princess's virtues.

"How long have you loved _anybody_?" Sofia wanted to know. "Besides mom and dad and James."

"Well - " Amber began hesitantly.

"I've loved Cedric since I was eight years old," Sofia said with certainty. "My love was different then than it is now, but love is always different. That's just the way love is. It shifts and moves and grows because it's alive. And I'm always remaking it. _We're_ always remaking it together. It gets remade all the time, whenever we just sit and talk quietly, or whenever he laughs, or whenever we learn something new about one another, or remember the past. Sometimes it's very simple and other times it's really complicated, but it's always good, even when it's hard. That's what love is, really: something that's beautiful even when it's ugly. That's why I'm not worried about what other people might think - even you, although I do honestly want you to like Cedric," she said earnestly. "That's why I know that everything will turn out right," she said. "The world would be _wrong_ if it didn't." She paused. "If it was wrong, then I'd just have to fix it. I'll _make_ things turn out right if I have to. That's part of a princess's responsibilities," she finished seriously.

At that moment Amber felt that Sofia was shining like a star, a paragon of princessly virtues, and she was envious. Sofia was truly beautiful when she was fighting for others or moved by her sentiments, and the First Princess again felt that old fear of being overshadowed by her strange adopted sister who did everything contrariwise and backwards and yet succeeded spectacularly despite her considerable unorthodoxy. It made Amber feel vaguely guilty and vaguely ashamed of herself. And her guilt and shame from being envious made her feel petty, but it also made her feel cross and confrontational. It was intolerable to Amber that Sofia could be so brilliant, could be such a perfect princess when she was defending her excessively weird attachment to the family's most accident-prone retainer. It wasn't fair. It wasn't fair at all that Sofia could break every rule in every book of royal etiquette ever written and still be everyone's favorite. By this point, she ought to have learned to behave herself like a proper princess.

Amber did not like the feeling of being upstaged by a girl declaring her undying love for a bizarre man in a bathrobe who was only successful at being a complete and total failure.

"I've loved Lyra for ages and ages!" Amber interjected, clapping her hands together as if she'd finally found a means of self-defense.

Sofia put her hands on her hips again and sighed. "Amber," she said, "Lyra is a unicorn. I'm sure you love her, just like I love Clover. I mean, I'm sure you really care about Cleo and Hildegard and Baileywick and a lot of other people. I wasn't trying to suggest that you don't. I just meant - I care very deeply about Cedric. It's not like loving a friend, even though friends are really, really important. It's not like loving family. It's more than that. It's like all of that is there and then so much more piled on top in a zillion layers."

"Oh, don't be ridiculous, Sofia," Amber said, turning her back on her sister. After a moment she sighed dramatically. "I can't believe you talked to all those princesses about _Cedric_, when you could have talked to them about something _important_, like shoes, or their favorite constellations, or basically _anything_ else," Amber lamented pitifully.

Sofia rolled her eyes. "Well, he is sort of important _to_ _me_," she pointed out.

At that moment, Amber's stomach growled _royally_. She paled, because a voraciously growling stomach was not one of the finer accomplishments of an accomplished princess. A flush rose in her cheeks and she bit her lip.

"Oh Amber, you're hungry!" Sofia realized all at once. "I should have figured it out before. You've been hiding in that bush all day, so you can't have had anything to eat since breakfast time." She immediately began digging in her pack. "There's a little left. I wouldn't let Cedric dismiss the extra chicken - "

"I'm not hungry!" Amber declared shrilly. She was clearly on the edge of hysterical tears because of her hunger and her cramping muscles and the many uncertain revelations about her sister's love life. "I'm not hungry at all and I certainly don't want any day-old cold chicken - "

Sofia passed her the wrapped chicken and Amber tore it open and cried as she ate it. Sofia sat on the log beside her and rubbed her back until Amber's sobs quieted and she was able to eat the chicken in peace.

After Amber finished, she daintily wiped her mouth and cleared her face of the smudged mascara. Then she stood and turned to look at her sister. She seemed to have fully recovered her poise and control.

"All this about Cedric," Amber said with a vague hand motion. "You must have hit your head or something." She was still clearly at a loss. "When we get back to the castle we can call the royal physician. I'm sure he'll be able to fix whatever is wrong with you," she said soothingly. "You'll be back to your normal self in no time." She patted Sofia on the arm delicately.

"Nothing is wrong with me," Sofia said with frown. "I'm not broken and I don't need to be fixed. You may not have noticed it, but this _is_ my normal self."

"No, it's not," Amber contradicted haughtily, forgetting that until very recently she had been attempting the role of conciliatory angel of mercy. "Your normal self doesn't talk about Cedric all of the time, for one thing. I'm starting to get tired of hearing about whatever it is you're trying to tell me. It's not really my idea of a pleasant conversation."

"Amber, _you_ brought all of this up," Sofia said with frustration. "You decided to follow me out here. You decided to hide in a bush for hours, and you decided to ask me about Cedric." She frowned again, "No, I don't always talk about him, but that's because I was worried that you wouldn't understand. I love him, and that won't change no matter what you or anybody else thinks about it," Sofia said with a frown. "This didn't 'just happen.' It's been happening for a long time. I've thought very carefully about all of this. I didn't just throw myself blindly into things. _I choose, _and I understand what my choices mean. I want to be with him tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after, not just when things are exciting, but when they're quiet and still. This is an important part of my life, Amber," she said with a sigh. "Maybe you can't see the wonderful things about Cedric that I can see, but you really don't have to. You just have to believe that _I_ can, and respect my decision." Sofia offered her palms up to Amber in a peace offering.

Amber became very pale at Sofia's final speech and then stammered, "You _are_ in love with him. It's not a trick," she said in astonishment. "It's not a joke. It really is - you really _are_ in love with Cedric. You can't lie to me," she insisted. "Princesses know these things."

"That's what I've been trying to tell you," Sofia said, throwing her hands into the air. She turned on her heel and drew her arms back down to clasp her hands against her chest. She had her back turned to Amber as she began, her voice soft and mellow, but it rose as she went on, gaining in pitch and timbre. "The path your heart decides on can be dark and deep, but if you live in doubt and fear, then your chance may not appear. Have faith _and_ _take_ _a_ _leap_ \- "

Amber flung out her arms as if she were shooing away an offensively tacky looking ball gown.

"Oh Sofia, you're not going to convince me with a _song_," Amber said with a magnificent eye roll. "You couldn't convince me with a whole choreographed musical - "

Sofia twirled past her sister on her toes and gave her a brilliant, familiar, and _stubborn_ smile. She had already gotten started, and at this point there was no stopping her. She felt filled-to-bursting with all her lovely mixed up feelings, and she knew they just had to come out now. It felt as if she had been waiting to sing this song for half her life.

She spread her arms wide again as she sang, "Because even a dark horse shines bright, in the warmth of summer shadows, or in the darkest night. You know a girl's gotta know what she's after, and it's taken tears and laughter, but when we're together, everything always turns out right. Did you know, Amber?" Sofia asked conversationally as she pulled out her wand and conjured a show of tinkling, twinkling wisps, "That you can find a fortune if you just bring a light."

"Sofia, get ahold of yourself - " Amber said imperiously, but Sofia just whirled past her again, followed by her stream of lights and stardust.

"A person has to know how to read between the lines," Sofia sang directly to Amber, as if sharing a treasured bit of wisdom, "What's written on his heart shines bright from deep inside - "

Amber struck her tongue out and mimed being sick and Sofia shook her head as she continued, "Don't you know? Perfection has got a lot of flaws, but that's what snared my heart because I've been looking at him all this time," she sang as she spread her arms wide again, turning in place. "And nobody else, either!" she shared pertly then continued with her virtuoso solo, "You know you'll never find a diamond if you don't look among the stones, and the kindest man may turn out to be the one who's all alone - "

"Oh Sofia, don't be trite!" complained Amber, "I know you're just saying this completely out of spite - "

"I'm not trite!" denied Sofia, "Listen Amber, I really don't want to fight. You wanted to know, so I'm trying to explain - "

Amber sniffed delicately and mimed dusting her hands, as if she had touched something repellant, "Please Sofia, just refrain - "

Sofia had at last lost her temper and stamped her foot as she retorted, "I can't refrain or I won't remain in this rigged game where you're ashamed of what I've claimed when it's plain, plain, plain that he's always, always, always been my aim. Amber, you won't even allow for sparks, but what we've got is _flames_."

"All I can see from him is lame, lame, _lame_," complained Amber.

"Then you're not looking hard enough, Amber," said Sofia with a very theatrical shrug as she turned on her heel again to launch into her next verse. "I know that my dark horse shines bright and if you'll stop ignoring what's right here," she covered her heart with one of her hands, "Then you'll see that I am right. I know you're reluctant, but if you're brave you'll discover the true, true warmth of one heart holding another. You see you'll always find a fortune if you can light the light, and then everything, everything, will always turn out right - "

By this point fluttering songbirds had gathered around Sofia to sing as she reached the musical bridge, prancing lightly along on her toes.

"It's not just the easy parts I want, it's the hard ones too," she confessed soulfully, "Because I've got hard parts," she sang with certainty, "And you do too!" she declared, pointing straight at Amber, who immediately huffed. Sofia spread her hands out apologetically as she added, "We all do!" She shook her head as she continued, "Not everything shines bright at first, but that doesn't mean it's not precious," Sofia sang, drawing her hands to her chest again, and the look in her eyes was tender and sweet, lovely and nostalgic. "Even the things that seem the worst, those are the things that enmesh us - "

"Oh Sofia," Amber sighed in exasperation, but she couldn't help but be moved by the tender look on Sofia's face.

"It takes the light of kindness to illuminate someone's heart," Sofia explained, the power and determination building in her voice again, "So take a breath, strike a spark, put your hand out into the dark. Pull them close, draw them near. Let them know that you've lost your fear. They'll light up like the stars above," she sang as she raised her hands above her head again and twirled the wand with a pretty flourish so that the twinkling lights glimmered beautifully, "And they'll shine bright with your love!"

Sofia closed her eyes briefly as the lights rained down on her and landed in her hair like snowflakes. "So this is the spell I weave," she sang softly, "Because in my heart I do believe that we'll work together hand-in-glove and we'll shine bright with our love. You see Amber, my dark horse shines bright," she finished sweetly, "His heart will always be my candle _and_ _my_ _guiding_ _light_."

After Sofia's show-stopping performance, Amber let out another huge sigh and said, "Well, when you put it that way, I guess I have to believe you."

Sofia giggled, clasping her hands behind her back as she leaned forward and gave Amber her beautiful smile.

"_Exactly_," she said. "You'll keep our secret?" Sofia asked expectantly, pressing her hands together as she bowed, pleading. "Not forever. Just for now."

"I'll keep your secret," Amber repeated, sounding tired. In all honesty, having to witness and then accept the true love of Sofia and Cedric for several hours with absolutely no respite had left her completely exhausted.

"Thanks Amber," Sofia said happily, leaping forward and throwing her arms around the first princess. "You're the best sister ever. I love you!"

As Amber was squeezed and loved and praised she felt a little bit better about things. No matter how strange and undesirable the sorcerer seemed to her, he was what Sofia apparently wanted, and she supposed that was all that was important.

* * *

As the girls got out of their rowboat at the river dock, they were met by one of the royal coachmen. A coach and four had been apparently been waiting for the first princess for the entire day. Sofia hoped they hadn't spotted Cedric on his way back to the castle, but she supposed that even if they had, some suitable fib could be woven to cover the situation. Sofia's flying horse agreed to see himself back to the castle on his own, which left Sofia free to ride in the coach with her sister.

And so, the two princesses soon found themselves on their way back to Enchancia castle in a coach pulled by flying horses.

Sofia was aglow with triumph, both from the pleasure of a wonderful day spent with her heart's fondest, and also because she had won her first human ally with regards to her relationship with Cedric. That her royal sister was somewhat reluctant in her support didn't bother Sofia in the slightest. Amber would understand things better with time, Sofia was sure of it. Amber had a very good heart, but even though she was a princess, she was also human. Some things just took time to get used to.

And yet, even though their great personal dilemma had been solved and the two sister princesses had reconciled with one another, another problem remained, and this second problem left the first princess blue, rather than golden.

She had skipped school, and this was not behavior befitting a princess. This Amber knew without having to consult a royal etiquette guide. She was sure that she would soon be royally grounded.

Unlike Sofia, Amber had not arranged to spend the day sketching wildlife in the royal preserve, and so she had absolutely no excuse for playing hooky from school. This meant that she would likely face at the very least a detention and quite possibly a royal parent-teacher conference. Even though the threat loomed large, Amber could not help being preoccupied by the day's revelations. At last, Sofia gently broached the subject of playing hooky with her sister and Amber let out a melancholy sigh.

"I'm sure I'll be expelled for my audacious behavior," she said, then her gaze shifted meaningfully toward Sofia, "Even if I think there are other princesses in this carriage who are even _more_ suspect."

Sofia laughed awkwardly and hoped the coachman wasn't paying too much attention to their conversation. "Don't be silly, Amber. Of course you won't be expelled. In fact, I'm hoping you won't even get detention if we play our cards right."

Sofia had already devised a plan, naturally. She was nothing if not inventive. She was accustomed to _creative_ _thinking_ when it came to problem-solving.

Suddenly the morose princess was interested, and she sat up and gracefully folded her hands in her lap.

"And how do you propose we manage that?" she asked. "I honestly have no excuse, none outside morbid curiosity, I suppose," she said with a resigned shrug.

"Well," Sofia began thoughtfully. "Headmistress Fauna is very nice, and sort of a pushover you know? She's a sweetheart and I hate to take advantage of her, but this time we might have to. What if we tell her that when you found out I was going to do sketches in the preserve, you got really excited and just rushed off to follow me without even thinking of getting an excuse?"

Amber waved Sofia off. "Well, that isn't actually too far from the truth, although it wasn't the prospect of drawing squirrels that drew my attention."

Sofia gave a pained smile and made a vague motion toward the driver and Amber silently rolled her eyes and nodded.

"There's only one problem with that plan, Sofia," Amber pointed out. "I didn't actually draw anything today. My sketchbook is empty. Surely even Headmistress Fauna would have some objections to that."

"I'm sure she would," Sofia agreed energetically. "That's why you're going to spend this evening doing wildlife drawings. I don't expect you to hit my quota," she said with a laugh, "But I'm sure that if you do six or seven sketches, Professor Fauna will be satisfied, even if you did skip school without permission."

Amber looked over her shoulder, at the quickly disappearing expanse of the Royal preserve.

"And how am I supposed to do wildlife drawings?" she demanded. "We're flying _away_ from the wildlife."

It was Sofia's turn to wave Amber off. "There's plenty of wildlife in the castle," she assured the first princess. "I'll call in some personal favors so you ought to have plenty of genuine wild animals to draw. And I have some ideas when it comes to the plant life and fungi."

* * *

Sofia's 'ideas' about the botanical aspects of this invented assignment led them to a place that Amber generally avoided at all costs, a place that she wished to avoid _in_ _particular_, given the events of the day. But Sofia was insistent. If Amber wanted to avoid detention, they would need the sorcerer's help.

"There are plenty of things that only grow in the preserve," she pointed out. "For your sketchbook to look convincing, it ought to have at least one of them, and not just a copy of one of my studies either," she said. "That's why we need Cedric. He can conjure something for you, and then you can draw it."

Amber was unsurprisingly reluctant, but followed her sister to the tower in spite of herself, because she wanted to avoid a royal disciplinary committee.

"I can't believe you're on intimate terms with _the sorcerer,"_ Amber said as they walked, making a face that expressed her innermost feelings very eloquently. "I don't even want to begin to imagine how he seduced you."

"He didn't seduce me," Sofia interjected, extending a slender brown finger in Amber's direction. "I seduced him. I had to! And don't imagine it was easy, because it wasn't. Well," she paused thoughtfully, "I guess some parts were easier than other parts, but I didn't have much of an idea what I was doing, and he had even less of an idea than I had. It was touch and go for a while, _literally_," Sofia paused in her rambling as if suddenly realizing that Amber was still standing next to her. "Why am I telling you all of this?"

"I wish you would _stop telling me_," Amber lamented pitifully.

Fortunately, they were soon before the sorcerer's door. After a series of knocks the resident of the tower opened the door and was clearly both pleased and surprised to see his princess, since he hadn't counted on seeing her until after nine o'clock.

He was admittedly less pleased to see the girl who stood at Sofia's back, looking peeved, distressed, and mortally offended all at the same time.

Sofia pushed her way into his rooms like she always did, dragging Amber in behind her, and proceeded to explain their situation to him in full.

Cedric nearly had a fit of hysterics when Sofia gently broke the news that Amber had been a witness to the day's events, but she managed to soothe him appropriately when she got Amber to begrudgingly repeat her promise to keep their secret.

"Of course I won't tell," she said dismissively, with a toss of her head. "Who on earth would I want to tell, honestly? I'd really rather not think about it unless I absolutely have to."

Amber had accepted that Sofia was in love with the sorcerer, and based on his reactions, he seemed to be genuinely attached to her, although certainly he was still very _Cedric_ throughout everything. But although she had accepted their relationship as a component of reality and was willing to try her best to tolerate it if only for her favorite sister's sake, this did not mean that Amber was particularly thrilled with the situation. She was doing her best to not think of the whole thing as being upsetting and distressing based on Sofia's heartfelt confessions, but honestly, anything involving Cedric just seemed to emanate 'upsetting' and 'distressing.' They were probably synonyms for his name in the thesaurus.

Whatever Amber's thoughts on their unlikely union, while Cedric remained nervous concerning this unexpected secret-keeper, Sofia worked her magic on him and soon he seemed to coming around to the prospect of conjuring some sort of rare plant so that the first princess might avoid a truancy charge.

"Well," Cedric drawled the word out, tapping the tip of his wand thoughtfully against his lips, "Perhaps I _could be_ persuaded - "

"Ugh," Amber said immediately, swatting the empty air as if it were filled with an offending cloud of flies, "Ick, no. Just _stop_. I don't want you to be forced into some kind of strange position with him because of me."

"Excuse me," Cedric interjected, his pride clearly wounded. "I don't force her into any of those positions. She gets into them herself. Honestly, I don't always understand quite _how_. Some of them seem like they'd be uncomfortable, although I do have to say, the view isn't bad - "

"_Cedric_," Sofia cut into his distracted statement of self-defense with some feeling. "_I don't think that's what Amber is talking about._" She had turned mauve.

Cedric let out a strangled squeak as if he had finally remembered that a horrified Amber was in the workshop with them. Imagining_ strange positions_ had completely pushed his current predicament out of his brain until Sofia had the grace to underline it for him in red ink.

"Of course it's not what she's talking about," he shrieked, his voice climbing an octave in his immediate and overwhelming panic. "It's not what I'm talking about either," he insisted. "_What do they teach you at that princess school?_" he demanded of Sofia, as if he had been dreadfully morally offended.

Amber's voice was dead with her resignation and complete despair. "This is the worst conversation I have ever had in my entire life," she said, covering her face with her hands.

* * *

Despite their many missteps, eventually Sofia's plan was successfully executed and Amber ended up with a sketchbook full of authentic drawings. By this time it was nearing nine o'clock and Sofia bustled off to 'do her rounds' before retiring to bed. In Cedric's experience this meant that she was going to run around the palace getting into everyone's business, solving what minor troubles could be solved with the time on hand and preparing a to-do list of new troubles and projects for the following day.

This left Amber alone with Cedric in his workshop. It was not the most ideal of situations, in her opinion. She suspected Sofia had arranged things this way on purpose.

Cedric was finishing up his own duties, as he had amused himself with his favorite princess for the balance of the day in lieu of doing any actual work. The silence that stood between them was hard and awkward. Cedric felt as if the first princess was judging him every moment his back was turned, and to be fair, _she_ _was_. It made his hands tremble in nervousness and frustration and he upset several vials as he arranged his alchemy table.

Every time he made a misstep or knocked one thing into another he heard Amber make a sniff or sigh. At last, after a particularly soul-crushing noise, Cedric rounded on her angrily and planted his hands on his hips.

"Do you have something to say, Princess Amber?" he demanded.

Amber frowned severely at him and felt sorely provoked. She had been attempting to get along with him for Sofia's sake, but she felt that he had been rude and dismissive, ignoring her to fiddle with his silly bottles. Although she had been holding her tongue, now that he had confronted her, she found that she had _quite_ _a_ _lot_ of things to say.

"What on earth were you thinking, getting involved with my little sister?" Amber asked haughtily.

Cedric frowned himself and answered automatically. "It wasn't _exactly_ my idea," he pointed out.

"You ought to be ashamed of yourself," Amber said huffily. She felt that she had sure command of the moral high ground in this situation and intended to use it to the greatest of her advantage. She liked Sofia too well to really lay into her the way she might have, but Cedric had no such defenses. She was ready to filet him delicately and _brutally_.

"I am, _frequently_," Cedric answered sharply, "But _not_ because I'm with the princess. To be ashamed of myself means to be ashamed of her, or to doubt her feelings, and _I_ _cannot_ _do_ _that_."

Amber was startled by Cedric's vitriol, particularly since her regular impression of him was meek, cowardly, and bumbling.

"Sofia, more than anyone, deserves a handsome prince and a happily ever after," Amber said, still frowning. "You have nothing to offer her and you're more than _twice_ her age. You must know you're not good enough for her. You'll never be good enough for her."

"No one knows that better than me," he answered, and his voice was low, but it wasn't soft. It was hard and brittle. "No one is more aware of how little I have to offer. No one is more aware of what a poor match we make. No one is more aware of what Sofia deserves. _No_ _one_ could ever be good enough, me _least_ _of_ _all_. If I could, I would give her the moon and all the stars in the sky, but this is not within my power. I wish that it was. Then I might give her something worth having," he finished softly.

"If you know all this, then why are you with her?" Amber asked in consternation. "If you love my sister, _like_ _I_ _do_, then you should want what's best for her, and you're _certainly_ not what's best for her."

Cedric wheeled to face Amber and he was very grim. "I love her," he said darkly. "I love her more deeply and more terribly than _anyone_." He paused weightily before he added, "And I understand her. If I denied Sofia, if I tried to deny my own feelings, that would _crush_ _her_. And Sofia is a fighter. She wouldn't give up if I denied her once, or twice, or even a dozen times. She would keep trying. She would keep fighting. Sofia doesn't give up. I would have to be cruel to her _for_ _the_ _rest_ _of_ _my_ _life_."

"You could leave," suggested Amber crossly.

"Do you honestly think that would work?" asked Cedric derisively, throwing his hands into the air. "Have you _met_ the princess?" He shook his head. "I am confident that if I stirred a step outside the confines of this tower that Sofia would chase me. She would be willing to chase me halfway across the planet, _or_ _further_, as far as she needed to go, probably on dragon-back with a flight of griffons and an assemblage of mermaids to help her. There is _no_ denying Sofia." Then he frowned again. "Beyond that, I couldn't deny her even if I wanted to. I can't run from her, even though I sometimes wish to. Her love can be frightening because it is so potent. It is so ardent. It is so _herself_, and I am, I am," he stammered, looking hard at the ground for a moment before looking up again deliberately, his eyes sharp. "I am reluctant to be loved. Sofia can be _terrifying_," he let out a tired sigh. "I love her. She is the most important thing in my entire life. I would give up anything to keep her. I would bear any shame, any disappointment, any pain. I know I am not a proper match for her. I know I will never be a match for her. I wish to be better than I am because she _deserves_ better than me. But _I_ am who she has chosen, and I will _never_ let her go, even if I have to fight all of Enchancia, all of the _entire_ _world_ to keep her at my side."

His heated tirade had left Amber's cheeks faintly flushed, although she certainly would have never admitted to being charmed by the sorcerer's passion.

The truth was, he was _beginning_ to grow on her.

Although Amber's worries hadn't been totally allayed, she was beginning to accept that what Sofia and Cedric had was powerful and ought to be respected, even if it was strange and unusual.

She closed her sketchbook and got to her feet, turning to give the sorcerer her back. She cleared her throat.

"Sofia tells me that you prefer crinolines to hoop skirts," she said regally.

There was a moment where Cedric stood there totally dumbfounded, staring at Amber's back, but when the princess looked nervously over her shoulder, he was startled into replying.

"Well, yes," he said, raising a gloved hand to cup his chin. "Yes, I do."

Amber turned around and opened her arms, palms up. "But you do understand that when it comes to a formal ball gown, the sheer amount of chiffon required for such a crinoline begins to be _heavy_," she said.

Cedric waved her off. "I prefer a slimmer silhouette," he said.

"Even in a sea of very full skirts?" Amber wanted to know. "A girl wouldn't be seen. She'd get lost. It wouldn't make a very memorable impression."

"Yes, but Princess Amber," Cedric said easily, with a nonchalant wave. "Sometimes _less_ is _more_."

And she couldn't really argue with that.


End file.
